ATHENS — Greek employers are cautiously optimistic over new hiring prospects in the period from January to March 2021, ManpowerGroup said on Tuesday. In its quarterly report on employment outlook, ManpowerGrop said that 14 pct of employers expect an increase in the number of employed people, 11 pct expect a decline and 74 pct expects no change.

The report said that hiring prospects grew by two percentage points compared with the previous quarter, but fell by 16 percentage points in comparison with the same period in the previous year. Thirty-nine pct of Greek employers expects to return to pre-Covid-19 hiring levels within the next 12 months, slightly down from a global rate of 41 pct. Tourism (58 pct), construction (44 pct) and primary production (40 pct) lead in expectations.

ManpowerGroup said that employers expect to raise their workforce in all seven sectors of economic activity in the first quarter of 2021, led by industry/production (+19 pct), construction (+12 pct), financial services (+11 pct) and primary production (+11 pct), followed by wholesale/retail (+2 pct) and tourism (+1 pct).

Large company employers are more optimistic over hiring prospects (+24 pct), followed by small- and medium-sized enterprises (+11 pct and +8 pct, respectively), while small company employers were more pessimistic (-1 pct).

The quarterly survey was conducted on 430 enterprises in the country.