Ilias Nikolaidis- diaNEOsis RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS ORGANIZATION
The crisis of the last decade affected young Greeks the most. They have seen – compared to other age groups – their incomes fall more and their prospects or conditions of labour market integration worsen. What did they believe then, in the storm, about life and work? What did their environment believe and how did the generations interact? To what extent were parents’ views linked to their children’s views? How did many characteristics change over time and with each phase of the crisis?
These are the questions addressed in two new papers published by diANEOSIS, which are signed by a group of economists from the Athens University of Economics and Business, the Centre for Economic Research and the Athens University of Economics and Business and diANEOSIS. The researchers analyse in depth the Greek part of the pan-European CUPESSE project on youth unemployment and intergenerational relations, which was conducted in 11 countries, and in Greece was funded by diANeOsis, as well as longitudinal data from the ELSTA Labour Force Survey.
Who were the young people of the crisis
Young people in 2019 were more educated than young people in 2008.
Young men work at a higher rate than young women. But from 2008 to 2019, the difference in the employment rate has been about half, from about 10 percentage points to 5.
Graph: Participation rate of young people (15-29) by gender
The largest percentage of workers
youn g people, more than 8 out of 10, work full-time, although the share of those working part-time has more than doubled between 2008 and 2019 (from 8.4% to 18.7%).
The majority of 15-24 year olds were out of work because they were in education. In fact, the share of young people in education increased over time, more so for some specific sub-groups, such as women aged 15-24.
In the period of the great crisis, as unemployment rises, the most educated young people find it almost as difficult as the least educated to find a job: unemployment rates for all categories almost converge. In periods when unemployment falls, this difference increases: those with more education are more likely to work.
Young people and their parents
Greek young people of the crisis seem to have identified strongly with their parents, either agreeing or disagreeing with prevailing views
Graph: Should the government take steps to reduce income disparities? Answers regardless of the employment status of young people.
Parents generally tend to be more ‘absolute’ in their answers than their children: they are more likely to say that they ‘strongly agree’ or ‘strongly disagree’ with an opinion.
In most of the opinions analysed by the researchers, whether the young person is unemployed or employed does not seem to play a significant role in the answer they give. The views of unemployed young people, in general, did not match each other in a systematic way.
In comparison with data from the same survey from 9 other countries (Austria, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic, Denmark, Switzerland and Spain), the researchers do not observe any specific pattern that systematically distinguishes Greece from the other countries.
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