“Lifeline” for employment in retail accounted for both the period of the financial crisis and the period of the pandemic food and especially business Supermarket. From the processing of employment data from the Hellenic Statistical Office (ELSTAT) by the Research Institute for Consumer Goods Retailing (IELKA), it can be seen that in the period 2000-2022. food retail is seeing a 60% increase in employment, in contrast to the rest of retail, which is showing an 11% decline. Almost 75,000 more people were employed in grocery retail in 2022 employees compared with 2000, when the total number of directly employed in this sector exceeded 217,000 people.

Especially since the start of the pandemic, employment in food retail has increased by 7.6% (in the three years 2020-2022) compared to 2019, i.e. for approximately 15,000 people. This trend is opposite to that seen in the rest of the retail sector, where employment declined over the three years 2020-2022. by 4% compared to 2019

Due to an increase in food retail employment and a concomitant decline in other retail sectors, food retail employment now accounts for over 30% of total retail and wholesale employment. It is also noted that employment in food retail accounts for 5% of total employment in Greece, surpassing employment in sectors such as construction, banking, transport and healthcare.

According to IELKA, the increase in employment in the food retail industry is also the result of the following factors:

“From a payroll standpoint, large supermarket chains tend to provide higher benefits for wages above the state minimum wage and also provide greater security than other industries in terms of the future and job retention.

– The supermarket sector was, together with the banking sector, the first sectors where the work card was introduced, which ensures the relationship between the employee and the employer in relation to working hours.

– The use of new sales channels such as Internet supermarkets, telephone orders created a need for additional staff to manage, fulfill and deliver orders. The above developments cause a personnel chain, as they require new additional investments in organization, computerization and network maintenance in order to increase the productivity of enterprises, which in turn causes new needs for highly qualified personnel.