Employability in the Post-COVID Labor Market in Greece

The outburst of COVID-19 pandemic crisis and its catalytic impact on health systems across the globe, has affected all socio-economic activities. The measures implemented for public safety since 2020 had severe consequences on employment, particularly in industries and occupations relying on the physical proximity among employees and customers. At the same time, the need to overcome physical reliance has strongly enhanced digitalization processes and practices at work and affected employment, production and consumption, transports, and communications. As work is shifting from the office or the shop to the expanded digital space, via platforms and cloud computing, the content and organization of work is accordingly changing (crowd sourcing, gig work), as is the status of the employee (sub-contractor, self-employed). With reference to Greece, as indicative case-study of Western Balkans and South East Europe, this paper explores the impact of the pandemic crisis on a digitally lagging labor market. The Greek economy is ranking very low in digital competitiveness (26th in EU28, 2019) and scores below the EU average in the integration of digital technology by business and human capital. In such economies, pandemic-induced digitalization is expected to have a higher impact on employment and employability. Drawing upon primary research data (retrieved via original questionnaire answered by 280 participants), we particularly focused on the highly qualified respondents, to explore whether retaining or losing their job is associated to the sector/industry and nature of their occupation (physical or digital) and their employment status (permanent or flexible). The results illustrate the division between occupations of physical and non-physical reliance, in terms of job losses; as well as, the generalized deterioration of employment conditions, even in digitally operating occupations.