Greece’s labor market faces a growing contradiction that is turning into a serious drag on growth.
The economy keeps generating new jobs that businesses cannot fill, while the pool of available workers keeps shrinking, not just from an aging population but from the mass departure of foreign workers who for decades propped up critical sectors.
Vacancies rise as the workforce shrinks
The latest study from the Centre of Planning and Economic Research (KEPE) shows job vacancies topped 31,000 by the end of 2025, up roughly 2,700 in a single year, a sign the labor shortage may be resurfacing.
The worst gaps are in education, with an estimated 6,900 unfilled positions, followed by health and social care, manufacturing, and wholesale and retail trade, sectors that keep the economy’s daily operations running and are struggling more each year to meet their staffing needs.
The exodus of foreign workers
The study’s most alarming finding is the sharp drop in the number of foreign nationals living and working in Greece. Their numbers fell by 140,500 in a single year, a decline of more than 51%, with women accounting for the steepest drop.
As a result, Greece’s total population fell by 12,700, despite a small rise in the number of Greek citizens.
The trend looks even starker over the long run. In 2008, foreign nationals made up 6% of the total population and 8.2% of both the labor force and total employment. Today those shares have shrunk to roughly a third of their former levels, and the total foreign population in the country has fallen by more than 65%.
Employment growth now rests entirely on Greek workers
Despite the shrinking pool of available labor, total employment kept growing in 2025, up by 73,700 positions, but that increase came entirely from Greek workers, whose numbers rose by 126,600. Legally employed foreign nationals, by contrast, fell by 53,000, or 37.1%.
The labor force tells the same story: its overall growth of 19,500 people came entirely from greater participation by Greek nationals, particularly women, who are entering the workforce at a growing pace. In short, Greece’s labor market is still drawing on domestic reserves, but those reserves are not unlimited.
Foreign workers work more but don’t stay
One of the study’s more striking findings is that foreign nationals who do remain in Greece show unusually high labor market participation. More than 88% of foreign men over 15 are in the labor force, compared with about 60% of Greek nationals, and nearly 84% are employed, almost 30 percentage points higher than the rate for Greeks.
Unemployment among foreign nationals stands at 7.6%, versus 8.3% for Greeks, and drops to just 4.9% among foreign men. Foreign workers who stay clearly find jobs relatively easily and participate actively in the economy, yet that alone isn’t enough to keep them in the country.
Low pay and working conditions push people out
According to KEPE, the decision to leave isn’t only about job availability. Pay levels, working conditions, the quality of available jobs, and sharp regional imbalances push many workers to look for better opportunities elsewhere in Europe, where wages are higher and career prospects better.
This is happening even as the Greek economy keeps expanding: from 2014 through the end of 2025, more than 803,000 new jobs were created, mainly in trade, professional and scientific activities, and hospitality and food service.
The challenge is no longer unemployment
For years, the central goal was cutting unemployment. Increasingly, the key question is who will fill the jobs being created. Demographic decline, an aging population, and the departure of thousands of foreign workers are reshaping the labor market, with the shortage of workers becoming a core constraint on economic growth.
If the trend continues, KEPE suggests Greece will need more than investment and new jobs, it will need a comprehensive strategy to retain and attract workers, so growth doesn’t stall for lack of people to sustain it.
