Letter to the Editor
Austerity, precariousness, and the health status of Greek labour market participants: A view from inside Journal of Public Health Policy (2016) 37, 118–120. doi:10.1057/jphp.2015.38; published online 19 November 2015
The findings of the recent article in the Journal of Public Health Policy entitled ‘Austerity, precariousness, and the health status of Greek labour market participants: Retrospective cohort analysis of employed and unemployed persons in 2008–2009 and 2010–2011’, by Barlow et al, reflect the Greek reality for the study’s period. Specifically, their findings capture the consequences during the early stage of Greece’s economic crisis (2008–2009) and compare them with nearly 2 years (May 2010–2011) of implementation of measures in the first memorandum signed in May 2010. Through all this time, the economic crisis grew deeper, and in February 2012 and again in August 2015 Greek governments signed additional memoranda. It’s too early to estimate the consequences of this last memorandum (from which only some measures have been approved by the Greek parliament). The consequences of the second memorandum are already evident in Greece’s macroeconomic data (Table 1). The average annual unemployment rate was 7.8 per cent in 2008 and 26.5 per cent in 2014. In 2013, unemployment among young Greek females (under 25 years old) was 63.8 per cent.2 Behind the numbers are people. The continuing worsening of macroeconomic data from 2008 until 2014 is strongly related to social phenomena that are connected to one another, such as unemployment and poorer health, which inevitably follow the numbers.
© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 0197-5897 Journal of Public Health Policy Vol. 37, 1, 118–120 www.palgrave-journals.com/jphp/
Year Economic indicators GDR (in current price in million €) GDP per capita – annual data (€) GDR in capita per PPS (EU28 = 100) Unemployment rate (%)
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
242 096.1 18.8 93 7.8
237 431.0 18.2 94 9.6
226 209.6 17.4 87 12.7
207 751.9 16.2 77 17.9
194 203.7 15.1 74 24.5
182 428.3 N/A 73 27.5
179 080.6 N/A 72 26.5
Note: In 2008, Greece’s GDP was €242.1 million, and was €179.1 million in 2014. Source: Eurostat.1 Letter to the Editor
© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 0197-5897 Journal of Public Health Policy Vol. 37, 1, 118–120
Table 1: Basic economic indicators for Greece, 2008–2014
119
Letter to the Editor
I strongly believe that a future study, using data from the period 2012 to 2014, will depict a more unhappy aspect of reality.
References 1. Eurostat. (2015) GDP and main components (output, expenditure and income), http://ec.europa .eu/eurostat/data/database, accessed 1 September 2015. 2. Eurostat. (2015) Unemployment rate by sex and age groups – Annual average, %, http://ec .europa.eu/eurostat/data/database, accessed 1 September 2015.
John Fanourgiakis Faculty of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, 18 Parodos Aristotelous, Patras PC 26335, Greece E-mail: [email protected] Department of Business Administration, Technological Educational Institute, Agios Nikolaos, PC 72100, Crete, Greece
120
© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 0197-5897 Journal of Public Health Policy Vol. 37, 1, 118–120
Austerity, precariousness, and the health status of Greek labour market participants: A view from inside Journal of Public Health Policy (2016) 37, 118–120. doi:10.1057/jphp.2015.38; published online 19 November 2015
The findings of the recent article in the Journal of Public Health Policy entitled ‘Austerity, precariousness, and the health status of Greek labour market participants: Retrospective cohort analysis of employed and unemployed persons in 2008–2009 and 2010–2011’, by Barlow et al, reflect the Greek reality for the study’s period. Specifically, their findings capture the consequences during the early stage of Greece’s economic crisis (2008–2009) and compare them with nearly 2 years (May 2010–2011) of implementation of measures in the first memorandum signed in May 2010. Through all this time, the economic crisis grew deeper, and in February 2012 and again in August 2015 Greek governments signed additional memoranda. It’s too early to estimate the consequences of this last memorandum (from which only some measures have been approved by the Greek parliament). The consequences of the second memorandum are already evident in Greece’s macroeconomic data (Table 1). The average annual unemployment rate was 7.8 per cent in 2008 and 26.5 per cent in 2014. In 2013, unemployment among young Greek females (under 25 years old) was 63.8 per cent.2 Behind the numbers are people. The continuing worsening of macroeconomic data from 2008 until 2014 is strongly related to social phenomena that are connected to one another, such as unemployment and poorer health, which inevitably follow the numbers.
© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 0197-5897 Journal of Public Health Policy Vol. 37, 1, 118–120 www.palgrave-journals.com/jphp/
Year Economic indicators GDR (in current price in million €) GDP per capita – annual data (€) GDR in capita per PPS (EU28 = 100) Unemployment rate (%)
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
242 096.1 18.8 93 7.8
237 431.0 18.2 94 9.6
226 209.6 17.4 87 12.7
207 751.9 16.2 77 17.9
194 203.7 15.1 74 24.5
182 428.3 N/A 73 27.5
179 080.6 N/A 72 26.5
Note: In 2008, Greece’s GDP was €242.1 million, and was €179.1 million in 2014. Source: Eurostat.1 Letter to the Editor
© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 0197-5897 Journal of Public Health Policy Vol. 37, 1, 118–120
Table 1: Basic economic indicators for Greece, 2008–2014
119
Letter to the Editor
I strongly believe that a future study, using data from the period 2012 to 2014, will depict a more unhappy aspect of reality.
References 1. Eurostat. (2015) GDP and main components (output, expenditure and income), http://ec.europa .eu/eurostat/data/database, accessed 1 September 2015. 2. Eurostat. (2015) Unemployment rate by sex and age groups – Annual average, %, http://ec .europa.eu/eurostat/data/database, accessed 1 September 2015.
John Fanourgiakis Faculty of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, 18 Parodos Aristotelous, Patras PC 26335, Greece E-mail: [email protected] Department of Business Administration, Technological Educational Institute, Agios Nikolaos, PC 72100, Crete, Greece
120
© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 0197-5897 Journal of Public Health Policy Vol. 37, 1, 118–120
