TITLE:
Labour Market Dynamics and Socio-Economic Vulnerability: Τhe COVID-19 Impact and Policy Challenges in the Region of Crete, Greece
AUTHORS:
Emmanouil Vergis, Nikos Papadakis, Michael Taroudakis
KEYWORDS:
Labour Market, Economic Vulnerability, COVID-19, Policy-Making
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.6,
June
29,
2023
ABSTRACT: The present research aims to identify the pre and
during COVID-19 economic vulnerable groups and assess the
effectiveness of the imposed supporting measures from the central government,
using ground-breaking labor force and
business data of the regional labour market in Crete, Greece, from 2016 to
2021. Through the conducted labour force and businesses surveys, this research
identifies the labour market trends, assesses the economic vulnerability of
specific workforce or business groups, either as a result of the pre or during
the COVID-19 period and further assesses policy interventions enforced to
stimulate market re-activation and economic growth development. Our findings
show that youngsters are employed primarily in seasonal jobs, whereas in many cases, the sectoral-specific job
requirements are for low-skilled personnel and consequently are more
susceptible to employment risk and insecurity. On the other hand, the older
labour force group, aged over 55, is found to experience high economic
precarity. Businesses in the Cretan labour market
also experienced a severe shock, where a significant amount of income and
turnover was lost during the pandemic. The implemented short-term supportive measures by the Greek State seem to have reversed to a certain extent
the economic insecurity business condition in 2021 back to the levels of the
pre-COVID-19 period, while a significant number of entrepreneurs consider them
ineffective. The Region of Crete could be able to build a solid labour market
that will be resilient in the next economic cycle crisis or emerging shock by
redistributing resources for enhancement of other sectors other than tourism
and the re-orientation of local entrepreneurship towards innovation and
knowledge.