No. 137. THE GREEK LABOUR MARKET UNDER CONDITIONS OF ECONOMIC RECESSION AND THE «YOUTH GUARANTEE» (in Greek)

I. Cholezas. 2014.

 

 

Youth in Greece traditionally faced high unemployment rates compared both with youth in other European countries and with older individuals within the country. The worldwide economic recession of the recent years resulted in a noteworthy increase in youth unemployment all over Europe and particularly in a number of countries, such as Greece, and forced a reaction from the European Union policy makers to focus on youth: the Youth Guarantee initiative. The main goals of this essay is first to identify Greece’s special features which should be taken into account in the process of designing and implementing the initiative, as long as the goal is for it to be successfully adapted to the Greek case and achieve the desirable results, i.e. reduce youth unemployment significantly. Second, in order to accomplish the best results possible, the essay proposes a number of actions which involve communicating to all social groups the consequences of unemployment, ensuring the availability of alternative paths provided for by the initiative through interventions at the educational system and the creation of new jobs, the utilization of possibilities offered by the European common job market through EURES and the operation of a mechanism capable to chart the labour force needs of the labour market. Third, regarding the actual implementation of the initiative, it is suggested to set up and operate a number of role models at a local level with wide participation on behalf of local societies along with the cooperation between private and public entities, the implementation of specific firm or social projects for shaping networks of youth and firms and the cultivation of cooperative culture as well as the availability of systematic supervision for the process of implementation, in order to be able to evaluate and improve practices. Finally, a necessary prerequisite is to give the ownership of the initiative to the Directorate for Employment of the Ministry of Labour and the Greek Labour Force Employment Agency (OAED), which will be both responsible for all stages of the initiative and, thus, will bear the entire responsibility for its successful planning and implementation.

 

 

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