Unemployment

The unemployment rate in the country fell to 9.5% in August this year, compared with an upwardly revised 11.4% in August 2023 and 9.9% in July 2024.

Unemployed persons totaled 444,402, a decrease of 90,496 from August 2023 (16.9%) and 17,551 from July 2024 (3.8%).

For women the unemployment rate was 11.6% from 15.1% in August last year and for men it was 7.7% from 8.6%.

Is the profile of tourists visiting Greece changing? Do they stay fewer days and therefore spend less money, or do they also choose budget accommodation solutions due to the recession in Europe? Is the peak season changing as the climate crisis turns July and August into uncomfortably hot months? Or is Greece losing higher-income visitors to travelers with much lower budgets?

For 2026, the Bank of Greece anticipates growth of 2.3%, highlighting that a key risk factor for these projections is the potential escalation of the geopolitical crisis in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Inflation is expected to fall to 3% in 2024, primarily due to a decrease in inflation for food, non-energy industrial goods and services.

At the start of summer 2024, Bulgaria has reported record low unemployment levels. According to the latest data from Eurostat, the share of job vacancies across the European Union declined to 2.4 percent in the second quarter, down from 2.6 percent in the previous quarter.

Economists have lowered their expectations for China's full-year GDP growth following the release of disappointing economic data over the weekend, NBC reports. Eswar Prasad, a professor of international trade and economics at Cornell University, highlighted that Beijing's outlook for the second half of the year is now "flashing red, or pretty close to red."

The employment climate is expected to be clearly improved in Greece for the last quarter of 2024 according to the latest ManpowerGroup Hiring Outlook Survey.

Based on the survey, in which 524 Greek employers participated, Greece's outlook has improved by 8 points compared to the previous quarter and by 2 points compared to last year.

Türkiye's unemployment rate declined from 9.2 percent in June to 8.8 percent in July, according to data released on Sept. 10.

The number of unemployed people fell by 112,000 from a month earlier to 3.2 million as of July, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) data showed.

From 2025, social security contributions will be reduced by one percentage point. This aims to provide businesses with the capacity to increase wages, in response to labor market shortages, with the goal of raising the average wage to €1,500 and the minimum wage to €950 by 2027, as per government commitments.

More than half of the unemployed in Bulgaria lack professional qualifications, according to data from the Employment Agency. This group has grown by 8% compared to the first half of last year. Currently, over 152,000 people are unemployed in Bulgaria, with more than 87,000 of them lacking professional qualifications.

The Labor Ministry will focus its efforts to increase employment on the large pool of more than 4.2 million people who are outside the labor force - i.e. neither working nor looking for work - while the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) said on Thursday the unemployment rate stabilized at a single digit (9.8%).