Tourism Best Bet For Job Creation

The most recent study carried out by the Research Institute for Tourism urges government to take advantage of the many opportunities open in the tourism sector to create new jobs. “Greece has a dynamic workforce, a large proportion of which do not need specialized skills but can acquire them relatively easily if required,” says the study’s author, Professor Panagiotis Pavlopoulos.

He added that the tourism industry is particularly welcoming for those who enter the workforce for the first time. However, as the vast majority of tourism enterprises in Greece are small- to medium-sized, he says, this creates greater mobility of the workforce. This tends to have unfavourable effects on the acquisition of experience and professionalism.

The report says, however, that a development strategy is needed in order to speed up the rate of development and create jobs in areas like tourism.

Professor Pavlopoulos says Greece has the lowest proportion of jobless among the best-educated individuals with 6.7% unemployed compared with the EU average of 12.6%.

Notably, Greece has the highest proportion of self-employed, at 45.7%, compared with the EU average of 17.1%. Meanwhile, Greece is lagging behind in skills upgrading for employees, particularly those in tourism and in public administration.

Greece’s large number of self-employed, and the population’s low level of participation in the workforce, will keep the jobless rate high, says the report.