Ergani

There was a surplus in the Labor Ministry's Ergani hirings register at the end of March, despite the increase to the minimum wage and the abolition of the subminimum salary. The impact of tourism and seasonal employment, combined with the domination of flexible forms of labor, led to a rebound in the market after a rather poor start to the year.

Private-sector salaried employment increased by 27,840 jobs in February, a month which not only saw a rise in the minimum wage but also the growth of part-time positions compared to full-time work, figures from the Labor Ministry's Ergani hirings database showed on Friday.

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.

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.

The particularly positive outlook for Greek tourism this year led to a major increase in hirings last month, with the Labor Ministry's Ergani hirings database registering a new record.

The balance of hirings and departures in the local labor market in April showed that hirings were ahead by the greatest amount seen in the last 18 years, exceeding departures by 100,246, thanks to the start of the tourism season, with sector officials being adamant that this year will bring another record in arrivals and revenues.

The private sector in Greece saw 14,402 salaried positions disappear last month, according to the monthly data recorded at the Labor Ministry's Ergani register. It is noted that departures normally outnumber hirings in Greece in August.

Hirings outpaced dismissals for the sixth consecutive month in July, according to the Labor Ministry's Ergani system. However, the increase in hirings rose at a slower pace.

The hirings-departures balance of the Labor Ministry's Ergani database showed a surplus of 40,449 jobs in June.

That is attributed to the beginning of the tourism season saw hirings soar.

In the first six months of the year hirings outnumbered departures by 255,903.

Back in the 1960's, Jack Harlan, a devoted American agronomist harvested wild wheat in southeastern Turkey as if a gatherer would do 10,000 years ago. He first tried using only his hands; hand-stripping the mature wheat ears, then he tried using a replica of an ancient sickle, a razor-sharp flint blade embedded in a wooden handle.