New publication: Youth on the Margins of Work in Greece

Many young people in Greece continue to be excluded from decent, stable, and suitable employment due to a twofold mismatch hidden behind the statistics. This is not primarily a skills problem: young Greeks are highly educated, but the economy is unable to absorb their skills. Nor is this a problem of unrealistic expectations: demands for fair pay, job security, and career prospects reflect basic standards of decent work, not excessive ambitions.

The percentage of young people who are neither in employment, education, or training (NEET) reflects this broader failure, including those trapped in low-quality jobs, unable to find suitable work, cut off from training, or forced to migrate. Reducing the unemployment rate is necessary, but not sufficient. Greece needs more effective pathways to the labor market, higher-quality jobs, a renewed social dialogue, regional investments, and an economy capable of capitalizing on what young people already have to offer.

Picture: shutterstock.com/Andrey Popov