How can Greece tackle unemployment?
At almost 24 percent Greece's unemployment rate remains the highest in the EU, the European statistics agency Eurostat reported on Thursday. According to a new IMF study there is little hope of these figures improving substantially in the decades to come. While some Greek commentators see the situation as hopeless others call on those seeking jobs to adjust to market requirements.
Creditors have sentenced the country to death
The austerity measures for Greece are like an endless nightmare from which the country won't awaken for a long time to come, the daily Dimokratia comments:
“The unemployment that drives some people to commit suicide, destroys families and robs thousands of hope is the biggest nightmare in the era of austerity programmes. … The IMF estimates that it will be another 44 years before before the unemployment figures drop below 10 percent once more! To be precise, the study calculates that an unemployment rate of six percent would be possible - under certain conditions - in distant 2060! In other words in an eternity, and only under certain circumstances (record growth, meagre salaries). … But it doesn't say anything about the responsibility of the IMF and other creditors for the austerity programmes that have sentenced an entire country and its people to death.”
Jobless must adapt to the labour market
The economic situation isn't the only factor to blame for the high level of unemployment in Greece, Kathimerini believes:
“The education and qualification of young people do not correspond to the real needs on the labour market. Two years ago - when six out of ten young people were jobless - this newspaper wrote that one third of the country's employers were unable to find workers with the necessary skills to fill vacant posts. On the occasion of the International Youth Day a short while ago, Eurostat published the data from 2015: almost one quarter of young people in Greece between 20 and 24 neither have a job nor are enrolled in a training programme. Crises of the kind we are experiencing demand reorientation and adaptation, particularly in the area of education.”