On his TV and in “Today» with them Dimitris Oikonomou and Akis Pavlopoulos hosted the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Niki Kerameoswhich spoke of record figures during the first 8 months of 2024.

“It just came out the most positive balance since 2001 in terms of how many got a job and how many left. A total of 300,000 more were hired, I remind you that when we got down to business we had unemployment at 18% and now it appears with confirmed data from EL.STAT. to have fallen below 10%”, initially pointed out Mrs. Kerameos, clarifying that in relation to the above figures, 54% concern full-time positions, 36% part-time and 9% on a rotating basis.

Regarding which sectors have the greatest demand, the minister said that there are sectors such as Information Technology with an 82% increase in employment, Construction with a 75% increase in employment, adding that this is not a cause for complacency, with efforts being intensified. “We may be below 10%, but this means that we have reached the hard core of unemployment, and therefore we must focus even more there and be more targeted. For example, we have over 200,000 more women – 260,000 to be exact – working than in 2019. Are we getting enough? No, we have a long way to go.”

“Employees with a Digital Work Card now amount to 1.5 million”

Afterwards, Mrs. Kerameos referred to Digital Job Cardwhich started 2 years ago, initially in specific sectors such as large supermarkets, security companies and DEKO.

“In the beginning 150,000 workers were protected by the Digital Card and since the summer we have universal application in both industry and retail, which translates to 650,000 more workers, while a few weeks ago we extended its application to tourism and focus on a pilot level. So in total, if you add up these workers in all branches, we are talking about 1.5 million people. So what is a Digital Card? You are an employee of the private sector, you have it on your mobile and you scan it when you start and finish work, so that’s how the real working time is recorded so that you get paid for it.”

In fact, as he characteristically said, the controls of the Labor Inspectorate have increased by 7.5%, with fines amounting to 30 million euros, with the data also showing an increase in cases of declared overtime.

What is changing in the unemployment benefit – “We want a society of workers, not unemployed”

Answering, then, a question about the new philosophy in unemployment benefitnoted that there will be a new pilot program immediately, with two main changes compared to before.

“The first has to do with how to make it fairer. All of us who work pay unemployment benefits. Some are paid by those who work for 5 years and others by those who work for 5 months, other contributions are paid by those who are paid 900 euros and others with 1,400 euros. The goal is to have a basic allowance and on top of that a bonus that will depend on the person’s insurance history.

The second change, he noted, concerns that the unemployment benefit should become front-loaded, that is, you receive a higher amount in the first months of unemployment and it goes on decreasing in order to motivate you to find a job. “We want a society of workers and not of the unemployed,” emphasized the minister.

Finally, as for pensionsMrs. Kerameos underlined that when the effort to speed up the awarding of pensions first began, 500,000 pensions were issued nationwide, while today 1,250. “Where we have a long way to go is in the auxiliaries. When you go to get an auxiliary ticket, EFKA draws data from many cash registers, where we have tabs, the old stamps. How do we work there? We digitize en masse, the old tabs are scanned, the system through Artificial Intelligence reads them and that’s why this process goes much faster.”