Since 2021, Greece’s economy has outpaced the eurozone average. Government support helped households and businesses weather high inflation, while public debt dropped sharply. A rapid digital transformation has been central to this success, along with a strong focus on scientific and medical innovation. Strengthened ties with Israel in research and growing trade with India reflect Greece’s natural pivot eastward. The country has also made major strides in renewable energy and expanded its service sector. Once seen as just a stopover, Athens is now a destination.

A rosy-ish picture

In 2024, Greece welcomed 35 million tourists—not just in summer—as it pushes for year-round tourism. Its once-overlooked university sector is now attracting international students and research funding, increasingly competing with EU institutions. On the defence front, Greece is NATO’s highest per-capita spender, with modernised forces and strategic partnerships with Israel, Cyprus, and Egypt, making it a key player in the Southeast Mediterranean. EU recovery funds, job growth, falling inflation, and recent reforms are expected to keep the momentum going. Still, big challenges remain. Greece needs to keep its budget in surplus and continue investing in public projects to keep its debt on a downward path.

Also, beneath the surface, unemployment – youth unemployment especially –remains stubbornly high—highlighting deep-rooted issues in skills training, labour market access, and productivity that growth alone has yet to fix. While the OECD headlines are celebrating a steady 4.8 per cent unemployment rate in February 2025, Greece finds itself once again on the wrong side of the curve. At 8.6 per cent, Greece’s unemployment rate is not just a number—it reflects a nation still trapped between past austerity and an uncertainty. Yet, if one scratches the surface, a painful truth remains: Greece is not creating enough good jobs.

Still stuck in structural dysfunction

It would be a mistake to view Greece’s high unemployment as merely a cyclical artifact – it is a structural problem, decades in the making. The Greek economy is still too dependent on seasonal tourism, public sector employment, and low-productivity services. Investment in new industries remains lacklustre, and the public-private partnership culture remains weak.

Meanwhile, countries like Germany (3.5 per cent), Netherlands (3.8 per cent), and even Australia (4.1 per cent) are operating at or near full employment. These nations, while certainly not perfect, are reaping the rewards of consistent investment in innovation, vocational training, and small business support. Greece, by contrast, continues to lag, hampered by bureaucracy, fragmented reform efforts, and a political class that often treats job creation as a short-term campaign slogan rather than a long-term national mission.

The youth crisis no one wants to talk about

Perhaps the most glaring tragedy is the plight of Greece’s youth. While the OECD’s composite unemployment rate remains in the single digits, youth unemployment in Greece still exceeds 25 per cent. That means a generation of young Greeks—bright, ambitious, and educated—are either stuck in dead-end jobs, working in the informal sector, or packing their bags for Berlin, Sydney, or Toronto in search of better futures.

 

While the OECD’s composite unemployment rate remains in the single digits, youth unemployment in Greece still exceeds 25 per cent.

This isn’t just a brain drain. It’s a slow bleed of national potential. And what makes it worse is the complacency with which this phenomenon is accepted, as though emigration has become an acceptable substitute for reform.

A gendered gap in the labour market

Reforming the vocational education system to prepare workers for jobs in the green and digital economy is essential. It is equally important to incentivise female labour force participation through childcare, tax reform, and flexible work arrangements.

Creating a real and workable youth employment strategy, not just internships, and unpaid placements is essential for long-term structural reform.

Greece is being left behind in the OECD’s employment regardless of the European Union having made available billions of euros in Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) funds. These funds are meant to help countries like Greece invest in digital transformation, green jobs, and critical infrastructure. Yet Greece continues to absorb these funds at a snail’s pace, stymied by red tape and administrative inefficiency.

Meanwhile, other struggling economies like Portugal and Ireland are pressing ahead, using RRF funds to retrain their workforce, attract tech investment, and upgrade public services. Greece risks being left behind—again.

Greece is being left behind in the OECD’s employment recovery supporting SMEs and entrepreneurs with access to credit and simplified regulation.

Streamlining the absorption of EU funds with accountability and transparency is important as Greece is not doomed to high unemployment. Unless the country treats labour market reform as seriously as it treated fiscal consolidation, it will remain a two-speed economy: one that balances its budget on paper but bleeds its human capital across borders.

A final thought

The OECD’s 4.8 per cent unemployment rate may sound like good news—but it is not Greece’s news. Greece continues to live with nearly double that rate, with entire communities still living in the long shadow of crisis.

The real question for Greece, in 2025, is this: Is the country satisfied with stability that benefits only a few, or is it ready to pursue full, fair, and inclusive employment for all? The answer will define Greece’s future—not just in the next quarter, but for generations to come.

*Tony Anamourlis is a tax law specialist in multi-national transactions, negotiating with the Commissioner of Taxation and other regulators.