Well-targeted job programs

The Public Employment Service (DYPA) focuses its employment programs on three vulnerable employment groups: women, young people up to 29 years old, and the unemployed aged over 55 years.

The data Kathimerini has seen show that at least six out of 10 programs that were implemented or are still running, from the summer of 2019 to the present day, concern women. Almost one in two was covered by young unemployed people, between 15 and 29 years old, while a significant percentage, around 18%, concerns the older unemployed, who, as it seems, are the hardest group to integrate into the domestic labor market.

In detail, in the last five years DYPA has implemented 55 employment programs, of which 29 are new job programs (business subsidies and integrated training and employment actions for the unemployed), nine programs concern new entrepreneurship (programs for young freelancers), seven are special programs and 10 are pre-employment or work-professional experience programs.

Of the above 55 programs, 42 came from new announcements, four concern amendments to older programs and nine concern programs that had been announced but their implementation continued during the reporting period.

According to the data available to Kathimerini, it appears that of the total 220,255 beneficiaries, 134,424 (or 61% of the total) were women. Exactly 103,803 people who participated in the programs in total were young people aged up to 29 years, while there were 40,267 beneficiaries, corresponding to 18% of the total, aged 55 years and over.

Also, the data show that almost 40% of the participants (77,239 people) were unemployed for more than 10 months (long-term unemployed).

The specific targeting of the programs has resulted in a significant increase in the participation of women in the Greek labor market, but Greece is still low compared to the rest of Europe, while female unemployment stood at 11.9%, significantly lower than in the past, but much higher than the 7.6% of men and the 5.8% for the EU.