More than one in four people in Greece are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the second-highest proportion in the European Union, according to a European Commission report published Tuesday that also highlights persistent gaps in wages, employment opportunities and living standards.
The Commission’s European Employment and Social Outlook 2026 puts the proportion of people facing poverty or social exclusion in Greece at 27.5%, compared with an EU average of 20.9%. Only Bulgaria recorded a higher rate, at 29%, while Romania followed closely at 27.4%. The findings come as the Greek labor market continues to record wage increases and improvements in employment, but the gains have yet to translate into comparable progress in purchasing power and broader living standards.
The annual report, which this year focuses on the quality of employment and its contribution to economic performance, examines wages, job security, working conditions and social indicators across the EU. Its findings for Greece point to several areas where the country continues to lag behind its European counterparts, from the purchasing power of wages to the employment prospects of young graduates.
The poverty and social exclusion figures refer to 2025. The EU’s indicator measures the proportion of people affected by at least one of three conditions: relative income poverty, severe material and social deprivation, or living in a household where adults work very little. It is therefore broader than the percentage of people living below the income poverty threshold.
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Greek Wages Still Below Pre-Pandemic Levels
The Commission projects that real wages in Greece will remain 0.1% below their 2019 levels in 2026, making it one of only four EU countries where inflation-adjusted earnings have yet to recover fully from the economic shocks of the past several years. The other three are Finland, where real wages are forecast to be 1.3% below their 2019 level, France at 2.4% below and Italy at 3.9% below.
Across the EU, real wages are expected to stand 1.4% above their pre-pandemic levels. In several countries, the recovery has been considerably stronger. Portugal has recorded cumulative real wage growth of 18.1% since 2019, while Bulgaria has seen an increase of 44.8%. The comparison measures changes in purchasing power within each country, rather than differences in absolute wage levels.
For Greek workers, the figures provide a longer-term perspective on recent pay increases that have been largely offset by inflation. In the second quarter of 2026, total compensation per employee in Greece, including employer social security contributions, increased 4.44% compared with the same period a year earlier. That exceeded the corresponding increases in Germany, Spain, France and Italy. Yet harmonized inflation averaged 4.4% over the same period, leaving real compensation virtually unchanged.
The difference between wage growth and inflation has narrowed considerably since 2024. In the second quarter of that year, compensation rose 6.8% while inflation stood at 2.7%, translating into a real increase of approximately 4%. By the same quarter of 2025, the gain had fallen to around 0.6%. The Commission’s projections suggest that the recovery in purchasing power remains limited when measured against the period before the pandemic and the subsequent energy crisis.
Greece Ranks Last for Employment Among Recent Graduates
The report also identifies a considerable gap between Greece and the rest of the EU in employment among people who have recently completed their education. In 2025, just 54.5% of recent graduates aged 20 to 34 were employed in Greece, the lowest proportion among the bloc’s 27 member states. The EU average was 82.1%, while the Czech Republic recorded the highest rate at 85.7%.
The indicator covers people who completed their education between one and three years before the survey, providing a measure of how successfully young people move from education into employment. Across the EU, graduate employment improved slightly in 2025, increasing by 0.8 percentage points from the previous year. Greece, however, remained at the bottom of the rankings.
The report also identifies some improvements in the Greek labor market. As in Spain and France, unemployed people in Greece have generally been finding jobs more quickly since the pandemic, partly reflecting an increase in vacancies. Nevertheless, the figures for recent graduates indicate that access to employment remains considerably more limited than in most other European countries.
More Than Half of Non-EU Workers Are Overqualified
A separate finding concerns the gap between workers’ education and the jobs they hold. Greece recorded the highest overqualification rate in the EU among workers born outside the bloc, at 58.4%. Estonia followed at 52.2%, and Italy at 50.4%. Across the EU, the corresponding rate was 35.7% for workers born outside the bloc, compared with 19.6% for people employed in their country of birth.
Overqualification refers to workers with higher education qualifications who are employed in positions requiring lower or intermediate skill levels. The figures suggest that qualifications acquired by workers who have migrated to Greece from outside the EU are frequently not reflected in the occupations they hold.
The problem extends beyond Greece. Across the EU, 21.4% of employed people with higher education were working in occupations below their qualification level in 2025. The Commission found particularly high rates of overqualification in agriculture and accommodation and food services, two sectors that employ substantial numbers of workers across European economies.
Job Quality Varies Widely Across Europe
The report’s central theme is the quality of jobs and the relationship between working conditions, productivity and economic growth. According to the Commission, employment quality has generally improved across the EU over the past decade, particularly in pay, job security and working hours. However, significant differences remain between industries and occupations.
Better-paid and more secure employment is concentrated in sectors such as information and communications technology, finance, insurance, manufacturing and public administration. Jobs in accommodation and food services, administrative support and certain lower-skilled occupations tend to offer lower earnings, less predictable hours and weaker employment security. The Commission also found that occupations experiencing labor shortages frequently have less favorable working conditions. These include personal care workers, agricultural workers, cleaners and other service occupations.
Its analysis suggests that improving pay, working hours and employment security could help businesses attract and retain employees, particularly in sectors where recruitment remains difficult. The findings also challenge the assumption that wage increases necessarily come at the expense of productivity. The report identifies a two-way relationship, in which stronger productivity supports sustainable pay increases, while higher wages can encourage businesses to invest, innovate and retain workers.
Greece Sets EU’s Lowest Employment Target for 2030
The differences between EU labor markets are also reflected in the national employment targets established for 2030. Greece has set a target of 71.1% employment among people aged 20 to 64, the lowest of any member state. The EU-wide objective is 78%, while Hungary has set the highest national target, at 85%.
Across the EU, the employment rate reached 76.1% in 2025, while unemployment remained at 6%. The Commission expects employment growth to slow in 2026 as higher energy prices and weaker economic activity affect hiring. It estimates that the energy shock associated with the conflict in the Middle East could result in approximately 440,000 fewer jobs being created across the bloc this year than would otherwise have been expected.
The report also warns that progress toward the EU’s poverty reduction goals remains insufficient. Although 3.5 million fewer people were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025 than in 2019, the EU aims to reduce that number by at least 15 million by 2030.
For Greece, the findings show that improvements in employment and nominal wages coexist with high levels of economic vulnerability. Nearly three in 10 people remain at risk of poverty or social exclusion, real wages have yet to regain their pre-pandemic purchasing power, and recent graduates face the lowest employment rate in the EU.
The Commission’s assessment places these figures within a broader European debate over how employment growth can translate into higher living standards, particularly as inflation and energy costs continue to put pressure on household incomes.