In the media you always read about the Greek “bloated and corrupt” public sector full of useless slags. Now I have been unable to find actual data that can back up this claim. OECD data (picture above) indicate on the contrary that the Greek public sector is actually much smaller than elsewhere.
1) Are the numbers wrong? 2) Latest reported year is 2008. Have PASOK engaged in a recruitment orgy when they came to power? 3) Do comfortable stereotypes replace actual facts? 4) Other ideas?
Alexandre Afonso 
2 responses to “How big is the Greek public sector, really?”
My friend, the greek public sector has never been big or bloated. This is a blatant lie.
The UK for instance has 6 million public workers, one in every 10 british is a public employee!
Click to access dcp171778_232222.pdf
Greece has now an even drastically reduced number of PW (30% less).
There were 770.000 PW in 2010 (in a country of almost 12 million) and now there are only 560.000. Consider also that greece is a relatively big country with the exact size of England and not a tiny round country like belgium. There are so many remote communities (2000 inhabited islands or mountain villages) where the greek state must be represented too.
its huge and its the single reason that dragged greece into this mess its 40 years of greek people not working and being lazy now we pay for their pensions at the height of it many did not even go to their supposed work and got paid.The sad truth is Greece cannot recover as people are shamed to admit it and are unwilling to change 40 years of lazyness have produced also a totally uneducated mass .Simple unless you find the cause and correct it no solution can come about greeks are totally not interested in changing period.