Manning Demand

With a huge orderbook of almost 800 new building vessels, most of which are expected to hit the water within the next couple of years, it’s becoming even more important for the Hellenic shipping industry to attract more youth within its ranks, in order to effectively man these vessels, especially when it comes to officers, engineers and masters. During these last few years, less and less youngsters are joining the National Merchant Navy Academies. According to a recent research by Drewry, the current deficit in the world’s shipping industry in terms of masters (captains) and
engineers stands at 33,000 people for 2009, a number expected to increase to 42,700 people by 2013. This despite
the latest financial crisis and rise of unemployment in land occupations almost everywhere in the world with the
exception of countries like China or India. The same argument can effectively be applied in Hellas, where as of today
unemployment is nearly 10% of the active population, with a tendency to increase even further.

One should expect that this would prompt more people to seek an employment offer on board one of the hundreds of
vessels owned by Hellenic shipping companies. Unfortunately this hasn’t been the case, despite the fact that the lack
of officers for Hellenic-owned ships is estimated somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 people. As for vessels flying the country’s flag, the amount of required officers stands at about 1,200 according to estimates by Alpha Bank. This can be further testified by the fact that the number of job offerings advertised is usually far larger than the actual numbers of graduates from the country’s academies.

During 2008-2009 graduates from Masters’ and Engineers’ schools were 447 and 379 respectively less than the
number of positions offered for filling. In other words, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the sea isn’t that
attractive to young people in Hellas, as it was during the previous decades, despite of the significantly higher wages
offered from the beginning of their carriers, compared to a regular onshore job and the radical improvement of the
vessels’ amenities and facilities, as a result of the constant renewal of the Hellenic-owned shipping fleet.

This, despite the recent efforts conducted by the Union of Greek Shipowners, which has campaigned even in highschools, in order to attract more youth to seafaring. The efforts did pay off, as it was shown in the numbers of
those who joined the Maritime Academies during the previous couple of years, with an increase of almost 50%. But
still, these numbers aren’t enough. More efforts must be undertaken, as many of these youngsters don’t complete
their studies and quit to other professions.

Just to offer our readers a glimpse of the problem, but also the employment potentials, it is worth mentioning that
there are about 1,200 ship owning companies active in Hellas today, active both on ocean going shipping, but also in
coastal shipping. On board their ships are directly employed 16,200 Hellenic seafarers and about 14,000 foreign
seafarers. A clearer picture of the worldwide situation is set to emerge next year when the latest five-yearly update on
maritime manpower is produced by BIMCO and the International Shipping Federation.

Anecdotal evidence emerging from the on-going research is that the situation has indeed eased, except in some sectors such as tankers, and poaching of sea-staff is much lower than at the height of the recent boom, but industry sources say the fear is that this might provide a false sense of security. With a high average age among senior officers, any reduction now in training and recruitment would, they warn, mean the shortage would be even worse when world trade and demand for shipping begin, as expected, to recover.