Empirical analysis of the risk of social exclusion of long-term unemployed young people in Greece

Abstract

While governed by the Socialist party during the eighties, Greece experienced an increased expansion of the public sector with successive and accumulative effects on the Greek economy. Public consumption rose dramatically, whereas public investment remained at the same level. Labour unions — particularly those related to the public sector — were reinforced and pushed for salary increases. Unemployment was not addressed by increasing production and encouraging private or public investment, but rather through increased hiring in the public sector (an annual increase of 3.1% from 1977 to 1989. Forty percent of the economically active population in the mid-eighties were civil servants). Private investment, which was 16% in 1974, fell to 11.5% of the Gross National Product (GNP) in 1987. As the industrialisation of the country was not given enough encouragement, renovation and innovation lagged behind, and Greece has remained mainly an agricultural economy. However, the service sector, particularly in the area of tourism, has been expanding.

Electra Bada has worked voluntarily videotaping selected interviews with young unemployed and one with an expert representative of a regional youth unemployment centre.