May 2018 Job Figures Reveal Seven in 10 Hired in Greek Tourism

The Greek tourism industry, particularly hospitality and F&B services, accounted for seven in 10 hirings in May, according to data from the labor ministry’s Ergani system released this week.

More specifically, for May, of 108,725 new positions created, 77,753 or 71.51 percent of all recruitments concerned hotel and F&B jobs.

According to May 2018 wage figures listed in the Ergani system, the total number of recruitment announcements came to 308,169, with departures at 199,444 – broken down into voluntary departures (93,522) and terminated contracts or fixed-term contracts (105,922). It must be noted that half of all jobs concerned flexible forms of employment.

More than half of all May recruitments (50.11 percent or 154.413 hirings) concerned full-time jobs, compared to 55.60 percent in April, indicating a 5.5 percent decline in the number of new full-time positions.

Broken down, 38.41 percent of all May 2018 recruitments were for part-time employment (118,388) and 11.48 percent for rotation work (35,368), with flexible employment accounting for 49.89 percent of all recruitments.

For the five-month January-May period, a positive balance of 264,551 new jobs was achieved, the highest in that given period since 2001, with tourism-related occupations accounting for the majority of recruitments for a third consecutive month: accommodation at 48,413 jobs and F&B at 29,340 posts.

The South Aegean Region accounts for a growing number of recruitments with 32,874 new jobs while the Western Macedonia Region marked the smallest number of new openings at 280.