Employment in the private sector recorded one of its strongest performances in decades this April 2026, according to data from the ERGANI Information System. The balance between new hires and departures reached 145,209 additional jobs, confirming the strong momentum the Greek labor market has maintained throughout the current year. According to the Ministry of Labor, this marks the highest positive result ever recorded for the month of April since 2001, reflecting a significant rise in salaried employment across the private sector.
The figures show that job hire notifications in April totaled 352,335, while total departures reached 207,126. Of these, 91,273 were voluntary resignations by employees, while 115,853 resulted from either terminations of open-ended contracts or the expiry of fixed-term contracts. The gap between hires and departures produced the positive balance of 145,209 jobs, which serves as the primary indicator of labor market performance.
Employment: Best performance since 2001
Particularly noteworthy is the comparison with the same month last year. According to Ministry of Labor data, the employment balance for April 2025 stood at 133,907 jobs — meaning this April’s result represents an improvement of 11,302 additional positions.
This development carries even greater significance when considering that April traditionally posts positive labor market figures, driven by the start of the tourism season and increased demand for staff across many sectors of the economy. However, the 2026 result surpasses every previous April performance recorded over the past 25 years. According to the Ministry of Labor, the fact that this year’s result is the highest since 2001 demonstrates that the labor market is maintaining strong momentum, despite global economic challenges and the pressures that continue to affect many European economies.
Employment: Historic high for the first four months of 2026
The overall figures for the first four months of 2026 also paint a positive picture. From January through April, job hire notifications totaled 993,189 positions, while departures reached 793,076. Of the total departures, 473,129 involved terminations of open-ended contracts or the expiry of fixed-term contracts, while 319,947 were voluntary employee resignations.
As a result, the employment balance for the first quarter of 2026 reached 200,113 additional jobs — a figure that, according to the Ministry of Labor, represents the highest ever recorded for a comparable four-month period since 2001. These figures reinforce the picture of a labor market that continues to generate new employment opportunities, with the hire-to-departure balance holding at particularly elevated levels. They also demonstrate that salaried employment in the private sector continues on an upward trajectory, posting results not seen in the past 25 years.
