ATHENS – A decade after brutal austerity measures attached to three international bailouts of 326 billion euros ($335.87 billion) brought record unemployment, Greece now is turning to foreign workers to fill jobs many Greeks shun.
Unskilled workers in agriculture, food industry, and elderly care units are in the most demand in Greece that the government hopes to fill by hiring foreigners, including 36,000 Egyptians who would get special visas.
The government said it will offer 89,290 jobs for third-country workers, with 41670 for dependent employment, 45,620 in seasonal jobs and 2,000 positions considered high-skilled and needing special qualifications, said Naftemporiki.
Data shows 16,000 of the 41,670 dependent employment jobs are for unskilled positions in agriculture, livestock farming, forestry and fishing and there are 5,000 jobs for office workers for Greek companies who are branches of foreign firms.
Manufacturing is estimated to be able to fill another 3,000 vacancies, while 1,430 are intended for factory workers (food industry, olive mills, cheese factories), while 1,100 operators of fixed industrial machinery and equipment are also sought, who must also have the appropriate specialization, the report said.
Of the remaining positions offered, 1,500 domestic helpers and 1,000 caregivers for the elderly and people with disabilities are open, no reason given why there weren’t enough Greek applicants.
There are also another 45,620 seasonal work positions offered, with 36,000 for unskilled agricultural workers as well as 2,750 for cleaners for hotels and tourist accommodations and 2,200 for food preparation assistants, laundry workers and fast food eateries.
There have already been signed bilateral agreements to fill the first 9,000 positions. Of these, 4,000 concern agricultural workers who will come from Bangladesh for agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries and tourism.
There is also an agreement with Egypt for another 5,000 jobs, regarding the employment of seasonal workers in the agricultural sector, which has been in force since January 24, 2023, the paper added.
