Despite difficulties, we can look at the future with more optimism, as our policies are bringing results

Athens, Greece.- Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he left an event at the Labor & Social Insurance Ministry on “Building bridges between human potential and the labor market” on Tuesday evening “much more optimistic and with a lot more energy, hearing all these very interesting, exciting I’d say, personal stories of people who either found work in Greece or returned from abroad through help from the public employment agency.”

The premier noted that 500,000 new jobs were created in the last 6 years, following a policy focusing on reducing unemployment (which dropped from 18% to 8%) and creating new jobs. “The issue is not just creating jobs. The issue is to raise salaries at a rate that they can support employees’ living standard,” he underlined.

Referring to working-age people who left Greece and returned to work in their homeland, and now relating their experiences at the event, the PM said that this labor loss had changed, and the Career Days events hosted by the ministry abroad had helped. It was necessary for people who find a job and return to Greece to feel confident that Greece is moving in the right direction and they will not have to leave again, the PM pointed out. “I believe that a lot of those listening to us and many who made this decision did so exactly because they have faith in the country’s opportunities, and in their own way – as they said – they wanted to help in this overall effort to revive Greece. And this is when the government, the state, enters to facilitate to the degree possible the return of our compatriots living abroad” and to share their experiences and training in the Greek economy.

Mitsotakis said last year (2024) was the first year that the loss of Greek workers abroad was reversed: “More returned to Greece than left, and I believe this is the best proof overall of our policies in the labor market.”

This evening’s event is perhaps the best response to the complaints and miserliness that sometimes accompanies public debate, Mitsotakis said, and it shows “that something is truly changing in Greece, that despite the difficulties, we have the right – the obligation, I would say – to face the future with greater optimism,” in stark contrast to five years ago. Greece is facing the reverse today, with many employers not finding enough employees to cover their needs, whereas in the past employees could find no jobs.

“This is a more pleasant problem than having an 18% unemployment rate and being plagued by unemployment, which is in the end the greatest expression of inequality and social injustice,” the premier concluded.

Source: amna.gr