Labor Ministry

The slowdown in the rate of job creation in the last few months of 2018 averted the achievement of an all-time high in new jobs, according to the official data of the Labor Ministry's Ergani hirings database.

In 2018 as a whole, 141,003 new jobs were created, according to the database, down from 143,545 jobs created in 2017, meaning that 2,542 fewer jobs were created last year.

The drop in Greece's unemployment rate appears to have been achieved through the creation of more jobs at low salaries, the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) says, noting that the lion's share of the employment spike is seen in the salary bracket of 501-600 euros per month. The higher the salary, meanwhile, the lower the rate of the increase in employment.

Greece's jobless rate is seen averaging at an alarmingly high level of 18.2 percent in 2019 despite the continued increase in employment (at a rate estimated at 1.4 percent this year), spurring the brain drain phenomenon.

One in two private sector workers collects a gross salary of up to 800 euros a month, while 422,150 employees, or 22.13 percent of all 1,907,945 registered in the Labor Ministry's Ergani database in October, work part-time or shifts for less than 500 euros a month.

Unidentified assailants Thursday vandalized a pizzeria in Thessaloniki whose owner is alleged to have beaten up a former employee.

The attack, which occurred at around 3.30 a.m., was carried out by two individuals who smashed the business's glass facade and sprayed graffiti on the walls before fleeing on a motorcycle, according to the voria.gr news website.

The best employer in Greece was the public sector in the period from 2014 to 2017, during which time the average wage for contract and non-permanent staff rose 16.7 percent, according to data from the Labor Ministry's Ergani database.

The average wage in the public sector totalled 1,502 euros in 2017 compared with 1,286.6 euros in 2014, the data showed.

Greek people of working age are caught between low salaries as employees and the low chances of successfully starting a business of their own, two surveys revealed on Wednesday, as the state only seems to look after its own.

Dozens of members of the union representing municipal workers, POE-OTA, forced themselves into the Labor Ministry headquarters in central Athens on Monday morning, demanding a meeting with Minister Effie Achtsioglou.

The record highs in employee hirings registered earlier in 2018 have been all but offset by the departures of this fall, which in October reached an unprecedented level.

A Labor Ministry bill provides for the payment in 2019 of expired dues in the healthcare sector to suppliers and patients, albeit reduced for non-patient recipients such as pharmacists, pharmaceutical companies, various healthcare suppliers and others, and even patients who have been owed money since before their entry into the National Healthcare Service Organization (EOPYY) - i.e.