His optimism for the implementation of the government’s pre-election commitment to increase the average salary to 1,500 euros at the end of the four-year period was expressed by Minister of Labor and Social Security, Adonis Georgiadis, from the stage of the 6th Athens Investment Forum 2023.

According to Mr. Georgiadis, this goal is feasible and can be achieved by developing the Greek economy and attracting new investments, which will create more jobs.

As he said today, the average salary amounts to 1,090 euros.

At the same time, the Minister of Labor described as an oxymoron what is happening in our country, which, on the one hand, the unemployment rate exceeds 10%, still high, but with a downward trend and, on the other hand, there is a lack of labor force in several sectors of the economy, such as, for example, the construction sector, the agricultural sector, industry and the catering and tourism sectors, which, in many cases, call for workers to be transferred.

“This is a structural problem,” explained Mr. Georgiadis, pointing out, however, that the unemployment rate may be lower than what the statistical indicators record, due to the existence of undeclared work.

Acknowledging that part of the workforce lacks the skills required by the modern labor market, Mr. Georgiadis underlined that the ministry “runs” programs for upskilling (upgrading skills) and reskilling (retraining), using the resources from the Recovery Fund and the NSRF.

As he pointed out, it is necessary to strengthen the digital skills not only of employees in small and medium enterprises, but also of older citizens. And this, because it is necessary for them to learn to use the internet and new technologies, in order to be able to make use of the e-EFKA electronic services and, consequently, to make their lives easier.

In addition, the Minister of Labor emphasized that the upgrading of skills and training contribute decisively to the efforts of the unemployed to find a job, while – in this way – the workers also manage to be more productive in the company they already work for or still have the possibility to look for a new job, with higher salaries.

Concluding his presentation, Mr. Georgiadis added that Greece also faces a demographic issue, which, in its long-term projection, intensifies the labor shortage and the problems in our insurance system.