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

A Shift to Services
The economic focus of Greece has witnessed significant shifts so that today roughly 67% of the workforce is involved in the service sector, 21% in industry, and 12% 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 more than 16% of GDP, 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.

Increasingly, in multinational companies and organisations, English is the language of business on a daily basis. Professionals in the workplace are well educated and the level of university degrees in management is by far the highest in Southeast Europe. During the past five years, there has been a 54 percent increase in students taking post-graduate university courses, from 50,057 to 77,167. Of these, 39,455 students are enrolled in Master’s programs and 37,712 in Doctoral programs.

Diversifying Economy
Other service sectors, such as banking, finance, and insurance have also grown considerably as market deregulation and privatisation have created thousands of new positions in these sectors. In parallel, technology has become a focal point of training and interest among the nation's young. 

Intellectual Capital
Traditionally, Greeks have placed education high on the list of priorities for their children. 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 any other country. 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. It was recently reported that more than 60,000 young Greek students attend post-secondary institutions outside the country.

There are roughly 165,000 students enrolled in post-secondary educational institutions in Greece. 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.

Source: National Statistical Service of Greece 

Source: National Statistical Service of Greece

Source: National Statistical Service of Greece   

Labour Productivity

Average hours worked per person in employment, 2008


Source: OECD, Productivity Database, 2009

GDP per hour worked [annual growth rate, 2008 (%)]




Source: OECD, Productivity Database, 2009


Percentage of pupils (ISCED) learning 2 foreign languages, 2005
Source: Eurostat

Percentage of the population aged 20 to 24 having completed at least upper sector secondary education 2006

Source: Eurostat

R&D personnel as a percentage of persons employed in the EU-27 in 2005

Source: Eurostat

University Education of Greek Manager



Source: EASE and INSEAD study on “Greek Management”