Why labor can’t meet demand
The main reasons for the inability of companies to find the right human resources they need
Over half a million unemployed fail to match the requirements of Greek businesses, so the unemployment rate, although decreasing, remains at significantly high levels (10.9% in March according to ELSTAT) and almost nine out of 10 businesses declare they are searching – in vain – for workers.
The lack of talented human resources, the mismatch of supply and demand in the labor market, and the many vacant positions alongside high unemployment are the forms of the same extremely complex problem, which has been observed at a global level for at least a decade, and over the last two years has made its appearance very strongly in Greece as well.
That is the result of many trends and distortions in labor markets – i.e. in the different sectors and professions, in the economy, the education system and in society.
As Christos Goulas, general director at the Labor Institute and the Educational Policy Development Center of the General Confederation of Greek Labor (GSEE), explains to Kathimerini, the mismatch between supply and demand in the labor markets is a measurable fact that is difficult to dispute, although a simplification of the parameters is observed which essentially limits the possibilities of solving the problem through the formulation of accordingly targeted public policies.
He says companies’ difficulty in finding staff does not necessarily mean that workers do not have the necessary skills. The jobs available in most manufacturing industries do not require a high level of skills, with a significantly high number of workers seeing their skills undervalued and underpaid, and in the case of the unemployed, ignored by firms whose production structure and organization is based on low-cost intensive labor.
The economic growth of the last four years, with the creation of 300,000 new jobs, has magnified the problem, as it has boosted demand for specific industries and specialties, naturally increasing mobility in the labor market and in workers’ choices, director of employment and labor at the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV), Christos Ioannou, points out to Kathimerini.
