Skills on Demand: Research on the needs of the labor market in the Municipality of Athens

The conclusions of the research carried out as part of the "Social Inclusion, Youth Employment and Poverty Reduction - Individualized Skills (Skills on Demand)" project were recently published, with the aim of detecting the needs in specialties and skills of businesses based in the wider metropolitan area Athena's.

Skills on Demand promotes the employment of vulnerable, unemployed residents of the Municipality of Athens through a holistic program of information, training and certification.

The survey was carried out from May to July 2022, by sending an electronic questionnaire and, in some cases, through telephone interviews, to a representative sample of 500 businesses.

The questionnaire covered businesses of all branches of economic activity with the largest percentage coming from the wholesale-retail trade, artistic sector - publishing and media, tourism, service provision, catering, food and beverage sectors.

The main conclusions of the market research are as follows:

- The trend of maintaining the number of jobs over the last year was found, as no changes were observed in the majority of enterprises. The sectors in which a decrease in the number of jobs was observed are the tourism sector and the restaurant sector.

- During the last two years, the majority of the staff of the companies that participated in the survey did not attend any training, education or certification seminar. This fact shows that many companies are either reluctant or do not invest in improving employees' skills.

- Employers who indicated that there is a need for further training, education and certification of their staff, are active in the IT, sales, construction, customer service, tourism - hotel, catering-food-beverage and the insurance industry.

- While most businesses are taking a wait-and-see approach to hiring in an effort to ensure their viability, some will be hiring within the next 12 months. - The occupations in demand are directly dependent on the branches which show particular dynamics. The specialties in which the largest number of recruitments will be made are in the tourism sector, the restaurant-food and beverage sector, the industrial and construction sector, IT, office support - customer service - accounting, the wholesale-retail trade sector and the insurance sector industry.

                  Read the full survey here

                  Read the research summary here

* The Skills on Demand project is implemented within the framework of the "Local Development and Poverty Reduction" program of the European Economic Area (EEA Grants), with the implementing body being the Development & Tourism Promotion Company of the Municipality of Athens (E.A.T.A. A .E.).