Youth in Greece

The purpose of this short report is to provide a synthesis of Eurofound data and analysis regarding the situation of young people in Greece for the Greek government. The report was requested by Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragaskakis, through contacts with Eurofound, with a view to assisting policymaking based on evidence. On 8 March 2017, the government initiated an 'integrated strategy for youth', the implementation of which requires data and evidence from Greek and other international sources, such as Eurofound, on the subject matter. The recent economic crisis has exacerbated the problem of youth integration in the labour market in the EU and Greece has been disproportionately affected. While youth unemployment in the country has long been part of the policy debate, conditions today are very different to those prior to the crisis. The economic crisis, socioeconomic developments, globalisation, and the pervasive effect of information technology and digitalisation have all changed labour market characteristics. Young people's transitions to adulthood and the labour market follow different trajectories and have become more complex. Governments and social partners in the EU rightly set targets to reduce the number of young people 'not in employment, education or training' (NEET), through initiatives such as the Youth Guarantee.1 However, the heterogeneity of the NEET population must be taken into account when designing measures. Effective intervention can only be designed if the NEET population has been disaggregated to identify the distinct characteristics and needs of the component subgroups, each of which is likely to have different welfare, training and activation needs. The report is organised as follows: Chapter 1 presents a clarification of the NEET concept and the disaggregation of the NEET population. Chapter 2 provides a snapshot of the situation of young people in Greece while Chapter 3 compares the situation/characteristics of NEETs in Greece with that of other EU Member States. Chapter 4 deals with the transitions of young people and youth entrepreneurship, and the final chapter - Chapter 5 - some conclusions.