During the last three decades in Greece, demographic shifts, EU integration, and global trends have been reshaping the economic landscape so that Greece’s human resources are meeting the needs of today’s service and knowledge-based economy. There is a good supply of highly qualified labour in Greece.

A Shift to Services
The economic focus of Greece has witnessed significant shifts so that as of the fourth quarter in 2012 roughly 70.5% of the workforce is involved in the service sector, 16.3% in industry, and 13.2% in agriculture. Contemporary trends have resulted in a vastly different workforce than that of 20 years ago, and training and education increasingly reflect the needs of today's globalised economy. 

Languages
The tourism sector, accounting for 16.5% of GDP (2011), has absorbed the largest increase in human resources. Many of the country's post-secondary educational institutions offer specialised courses in tourism studies, with an emphasis on language training. As a result, Greece ranks favourably in the EU for its number of speakers of a second language. English is by far the most widely spoken second language in Greece.

English is the language of business on a daily basis, especially in international companies. Professionals in the workplace are well educated and the level of university degrees in management is by far the highest in Southeast Europe.

Intellectual Capital
Education has been long recognised as the most valuable asset a person can have to advance and Greeks are eager to invest in training their sons and daughters. In fact, Greece sends more students abroad to study, per capita, than many countries. Universities in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, and the United States boast large numbers of students from Greece, many of whom achieve high academic success.

There are roughly 177,300 students enrolled in post-secondary educational institutions in Greece. During the past years the number of graduate students has increased significantly, reaching 36,074 enrolled in graduate programmes, and 24,142 enrolled in doctoral programmes in the academic year 2011/2012. Greek students have always shown a strong interest in medicine, the sciences, engineering and electronics. In recent years, technology and business administration have become more popular, as new programmes are offered and more opportunities exist to pursue studies outside Greece. 

Greece's "intellectual capital" will continue to be a strong national asset and investors who are seeking special skills will have a host of competitive advantages when choosing Greece as an investment location.

Representative Data

Labour Productivity - Average hours worked per person in employment, 2011


 
Source: OECD, Productivity Database, 2013

Labour productivity: Per employee in selected countries for the year 2011 (Index, EU-27 Average = 100)


 
Source: EUROSTAT, Database, 2013