The structure of employment in Greece corresponds only roughly to the structure of the national product. According to the most recent labor survey (1991), some 22 percent of the employed population worked in agriculture, 28 percent in industry, and 50 percent in services. Comparison with the corresponding percentages for the participation of the three sectors in the national product indicates that agriculture is more labor-intensive than the other two sectors, but productivity is lower in agriculture and there is substantial underemployment in the agricultural labor force.

An analysis of the labor force by sex shows that working men are overrepresented in industry (33 percent of total male employment is in the secondary sector), whereas working women are overrepresented in agriculture and in services (33 percent and 50 percent of female employment is in the primary and tertiary sectors, respectively). In terms of total employment and unemployment, in 1991 approximately 2.3 million men and 1.6 million women were working. In the same year, 109,000 men and 188,000 women were reported as unemployed. Thus, within the nationwide unemployment rate of 7.0 percent, the female population experienced a higher unemployment rate of 11.7 percent. In 1989 (the last year for which such figures were available), the rate of unemployment among persons of both sexes under age thirty was 18.8 percent. Estimates indicate that the unemployment rate in Greece hovered around 9.8 percent in 1993. Experts assume that women and younger workers in general continue to show relatively higher unemployment rates than the national average. Pay rates also differ between men and women. In 1990 among salaried employees in manufacturing and trade, females received compensation averaging 80 percent of compensation given males for comparable work.

An important characteristic of the Greek employment structure is the division of the working population into groups of occupational status. Thus, in 1989 about 5.6 percent of the working population were employers, and 51.4 percent were wage and salary earners. The balance was made up of 28.7 percent who were selfemployed and 14.3 percent who were unpaid family members occupied in a family business. The relatively high percentages in the last two categories are typical of a society featuring many very small business firms run on a family basis together with a large service sector.

The large number of individuals employed in seasonal or nonpermanent agricultural and service positions means that it is quite common for people to work at more than one gift. Thus, for example, a farmer or an urban craftsman may also provide tourist services in the summer. Double occupations are even encountered among public-sector employees who take second jobs in the evening. Besides creating a certain fluidity in a worker's social role, this tendency complicates the measurement of productivity and unemployment in various sectors of an economy.

Data as of December 1994

NOTE: The information regarding Greece on this page is re-published from The Library of Congress Country Studies and the CIA World Factbook. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Greece The Structure of Employment information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Greece The Structure of Employment should be addressed to the Library of Congress and the CIA.