The professional categories that pay well

Workers in crucial production sectors such as electricians and electronics experts, information and communication technicians, general duty staff and people handling equipment with keyboards receive salaries that are significantly higher than the average in the Greek economy, a study by the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises has found.

The SEV report records professions with considerably high demand, offering better employment prospects and salaries, including medium-level jobs in sectors that have shown remarkable momentum in the difficult period between the peak of the financial crisis and the outbreak of the pandemic.

The 11 professions SEV has identified as having a strong momentum and leading to higher salaries are: information and communication technicians, general duty employees and keyboard-related hardware operators, customer service workers, data and material recording employees, sales assistants, craftworkers, electricians and electronics experts, workers processing food, wood and apparel, industrial equipment operators, assemblers, and transport drivers and operators of mobile equipment.

According to SEV, between 2013 and 2019 employment in manufacturing, logistics, information and communication technologies (ICT), energy and mining increased faster than employment across the economy. In 2019, 68% of workers in the critical production sectors were employed in those professions, which rely on professional education and training, while for the entire economy that rate stood at just 37%.

Among the crucial production sectors in 2019, the profession with the highest number of workers, by some distance too, was that of transport drivers and operators of mobile equipment, which topped 122,000 people. That was followed by workers in processing food, wood and apparel, general duty employees and keyboard-related hardware operators, and industrial equipment operators; in those three categories employment ranged between 50,00 and 70,000 people.

The considerably increased demand by corporations for those professionals leads, the study shows, to markedly higher salaries. Therefore the average salaries of some dynamic professionals such as electricians, ICT experts and general duty workers are significantly higher than the economy’s mean salary level.