Labour Market Recovery in an Economic Crisis and Launching of Big National Projects of Private Financing

"The engulfing economic crisis has continued to hit severely the export, the investments, the production, the trade, the services and the financial system. The negative consequences for the labour market have also been extremely grim in scope and direction. Records issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP) and the National Employment Agency show that the unemployment rate rose to 9.13 percent last year. Considering the National Statistical Institute (NSI) data of the ever-growing number of the so-called ‘discouraged people’ (unemployed people who are not registered and are not actively seeking work) shows that the general level of the real unemployment rate towards the end of last year exceeded 13.8 percent.

 The budget prognosis for 2010 for an average level of 11.4 percent suggests that the officially registered unemployment rate will exceed 13.7 percent by the end of this year.  By considering the non-registered permanently unemployed and discouraged people, as well as the growing influx of labour migration towards the country, the real unemployment rate in December 2010 is expected to reach a critical point in social tolerance (19-20 percent depending on the structure evaluation of the economic active people). There should be also taken into consideration the probable delay (lag behind) in the manpower demand with regard to the economic growth, due to the productivity enhancement, necessary for the individual sectors growth............"