Work

Greece's Convergence to EU Standards: Is It Feasible for Greece to Attain an Unemployment Rate Below 10%?

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Given the theory of efficient unemployment and using Eurostat data, it turns out that the average annual unemployment in Greece over the last -at least- 15 years has been consistently below 10% when job vacancies are considered. Given that based on cumulative data for the period 2010-2022 job vacancies are estimated to be between 98 thousand and 123 thousand, we argue that an appropriate indicator for the degree of slackness/tightness of the Greek labor market should combine both unemployed persons and job vacancies. That is, the u* indicator of the full-employment rate of unemployment (FERU). Our analysis shows that if the positive trends of the declining unemployment rate and increasing job vacancy rate continue, a full-employment state could be reached even in the next 3.5 years converging to EU standards.

Source: Journal of Economic Integration

DOI: 10.11130/jei.2025002

Authors: Panagiotis Liargovas, Georgios Bertsatos, George Agiomirgianakis, George Sfakianakis

Institutions: University of Peloponnese, Centre for Planning and Economic Research, Hellenic Open University, Hellenic Mediterranean University, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Language: English

Topic: Unemployment and Economic Growth

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: diamond

OpenAlex ID: W4409780081