Greece needs 20 years to re-create one million jobs lost to crisis

Ιt’s time that we, the non-economists dealing with the Greek debt crisis, learn a new term. That’s “jobless growth” or “jobless recovery”. In short,  this term means that there is growth in an economy of a country, but people still get no jobs. Something like the phenomenon in modern Greece of success story. A report prepared by the Labor Institute of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), forecasts that it will take 20 years to create one million jobs – the number of positions lost since the start of the crisis – and bring the unemployment rate down below the pre-crisis level of 10%.

A jobless recovery or jobless growth is an economic phenomenon in which a macroeconomy experiences growth while maintaining or decreasing its level of employment. The first documented use of the term was in the New York Times in the 1930s.
Economists are still divided about the causes and cures of a jobless recovery: some argue that increased productivity through automation has allowed economic growth without reducing unemployment. Other economists state …argue that jobless recoveries stem from structural changes in the labor market, leading to unemployment as workers change jobs or industries.

Below the GSBEE report as reported by Enetenglish & AthensNewsAgency

Twenty years needed to re-create million jobs lost to crisis Labour Institute says employees’ earnings have fallen €41bn since 2009.
Report finds that since 2009, employees have lost about one quarter of the purchasing power they have from their incomes, adding that if high unemployment continues to place pressure on wages, then they will lose half of their purchasing power in 2014

        It will take 20 years to create one million jobs – the number of positions lost since the start of the crisis - and bring the unemployment rate down below the pre-crisis level of 10%, a study to be published later this month will claim.

The annual report from the Labour Institute of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), which represents private-sector employees, will say that as the expected investments in the intervening two decades will not be labour intensive or high-tech, this will produce so-called “jobless growth”.

        For the second month running, unemployment rose to a new record high of 27.6% in May, the most recent month for which figures are available. That month, 1,381,088 people were registered as out of work, compared to 452,465 in the same month in 2009.

The full report is expected to be published ahead of the Thessaloniki Trade Fair, an occasion usually used by the government to set out its economic agenda for the coming year.The report also finds that since 2009, employees have lost about one quarter of the purchasing power they have from their incomes, adding that if high unemployment continues to place pressure on wages, then they will lose half of their purchasing power in 2014.
The institute says that the earnings of salaried employees and the self-employed had fallen by €41bn in the last three years.In addition, domestic demand has slumped to 1999 levels, while in from 2011 to 2013, the stock of fixed capital has fallen for the first time since the end of the Greek civil war (1949).
PS jobless growth? stagflation? we live in the Great Greek Depression, you know?

http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2013/09/02/greece-needs-20-years-to-re-create-one-million-jobs-lost-to-crisis/