The Unemployment Rate in Greece is down to 21.7% in April from a record 27.9% in July of 2013 and a record low of 7.3% in May of 2008.
Despite the falling rate, the percentage of those unemployed seeking jobs abroad has risen from 11% in 2015 to 33% this year.
The message seems to be “get me the hell out of here”.
The Greek Reporter notes Brain Drain Gathers Pace as One in Three Greeks Looks for a Job Abroad.
According to the annual survey by the firm Adecco titled “Employability in Greece,” the brain drain phenomenon has been increasing over the last three years.
In 2015 only about 11% of unemployed respondents said that they were actively looking for a job abroad. This figure increased to 28% in 2016 and reached 33% this year.
The responses show that the unemployed have different reasons to seek work abroad. Whereas in 2005, the main reason was the prospect of a better wage, in 2016 and 2017 the main reason given were better career opportunities.
The study conducted for the third year running, in collaboration with polling company LMG, was based on a sample of 903 people from the age of 18 to 67.
According to other findings, 37% of respondents say that they have been out of the labor market for at least 12 months.
Unemployment vs Wanting a Job
More than 1 out of 4 (28%) are out of the labor market, a higher rate compared with the previous two years.
In Greece, as in the US and elsewhere, there is a difference between wanting a job but not having one, and being officially unemployed.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Ain’t socialism grand? Unless you have any ambition, that is.
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There is no socialism in Greece and the leader is a “socialist” in name only.
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Having sat across table from Andreas Papandreou on a number of occasions (may he burn in Hell) I can tell you there has been altogether too much ‘Socialism’ in Greece and far too little free market capitalism.
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Ambition, a work ethic, and the appropriate Skills. Skills can be taught. If Greeks have the right Skills, there are countries who will want them.
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Socialism is grand for those with ambition also:
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2017/07/18/asylum-seekers-moria-lesvos-protest/
https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2017/07/17/links-revealed-george-soros-open-society-and-the-migrant-flood-via-italy/
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If the “brain drain” consists of mostly of socialist brains then the recipient countries will have a fleeting benefit.
Socialism is just feel-good parasitism that eventually kills the host.
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Actually you should read killing the host by Michael Hudson the killers are neoliberals and austerity
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“the killers are neoliberals and austerity”
What Austerity are you talking about?
Do you call budget deficits of $500 billion to $1 trillion or more “austerity”?
Anyone who thinks there is austerity had swiss cheese for brains.
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I can confirm personally the brain drain: we [inside the EU] have taken on 3 Greek guys (programmers) the past few years, as well as some from the former Yugoslavia: these guys would otherwise belong to the bloom of the nation.
All countries with IMF restructuring or austerity plans support large populations of foreign working youth. They support the family (and economy) back home, but at great cost to the future of the nation. It is also a model that only works for relatively small countries.
What people don’t get is that when the collapse of private credit expansion collapses economic growth, the simultaneous imposition of less government spending (partly due to less revenue, with the Euro you cannot even exercise financial sovereignty as in Japan) and consumption targeted taxes (and often tax breaks for holding assets, hoping the money goes to investment to prop up the moribund economy, but in fact canalizing the asset income back into asset price bidding), leads to even deeper crisis, not recovery. Even though everybody bashes Japan (calling for a crash these last 30 years), they have low unemployment, and good GDP/capita and productivity numbers, and a high standard of living. Government spending is not by definition inflationary, and central bank bond buying is a peculiar form of debt or “moneyness”.
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O/T please note in Cataluña that there are some strong political maneuvers taking place now ahead of the 1-0 ( 1st Oct.) referendum date. The Catalan govern has shuffled responsibilities, and purchased ballot material outside of official accounts, refusing to elaborate the detail by describing itself as being under siege by Spain. Yesterday the head of the 15000 strong Mossos D’Esquadra Catalan police force resigned and was replaced with an independentista, among his first words ” I hope we leave now, because I am ashamed by/feel sorry for all the Spanish ” ( his words can be interpreted differently). The police union is clarifying legal responsibilities for officers, order of duty.
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The police union tells the officers what their duty is, not the police chief? Europe seems to be more screwed up than I realized. I’m not even going to visit there again.
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From what I was reading the union was demanding that the new chief outlined what the duties of the police would be during run up to and at referendum so that the police would be covered by the statement of the chief and exempted from Spanish legal responsibilities if they followed those orders (because it would have been made clear it was orders of the police chief, who they are bound to obey).
That can be read as you put it, because they are pressuring to form a given framework that will be followed by officers, or it can be read as simply protecting the officers in an uncertain circumstance.
Personally I think they are using the theme partly to form the police force into something more cohesive, protected, and active, under the new chief…but that is just what I deduce from the tone, I don’t actually know what they are all up to.
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The Spanish government would have to use Article 155 to impose direct authority in Cataluña, which has never been invoked before, and is complicated and a major escalation. If they want to use the army they have to go further and declare a state of emergency.
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EU is OK to visit, if you like the outdoors, history, not set foot there before etc., but it is becoming very compacted, there is no outward bound feeling left, sort of like it has run out of ideas. Society has changed too, much less buoyant, more formatted, spoilt in some cases, just hanging in others. There is a depth to it all that I appreciate, but even that seems disconnected nowadays. Sort of place you could retire, go unnoticed, and have a reasonable quality of life, but in general it is not really the sort of place to celebrate any sort of great freedom anymore.
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The message seems to be “get me the hell out of here”.
How could you NOT have included this clip???
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Based on questionnaires completed by high school students of three experimental high schools in Thessaloniki, the study found that:
76% of respondents said they seriously consider to study abroad.
43.3% said they have a strong intention to go abroad for studies.
33% said they had a modest intention.
23.7% said they have a low intention or responded negative.
The questionnaires were answered by 373 students, aged 15-18, from a wide socio-economic spectrum, from moderate, middle and low income neighborhoods.
During 2009 – 2014, some 20,000 scientists migrated from Greece. The percentage has more than quadrupled over the corresponding brain drain in 2000-2005, when only 2,500 young scientists had left Greece, says the study
Nearly half a million Greeks have left the country in search of better opportunities abroad since 2008 due to the financial crisis, a report by the Bank of Greece showed in summer 2016. Educated professionals are among those leading the Greek Crisis exodus, while in the past decades it was mostly unskilled workers and farmers leaving the country for a better future.
The exodus is being led by young professionals seeking their fortune in Germany, the UK and the United Arab Emirates.
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2017/04/28/brain-drain-even-teenagers-want-leave-greece/
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When I was still in college, Britain was known as the sick man of Europe and the maximum tax on unearned income was a staggering 98%. Ambitious young people looked for opportunities abroad and moved.
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Established companies lead where people have to work, a balance betwen low taxes on wages, flexible slaves, low national taxes and corrupted enough politicians to accept this situation.
Borders have collapsed, and so the slavery can begin.
Only limited countries like Japan, UAE and equivalent keep a decent life for the locals. All other need to run for a job.
I decided to get a job with very local skills so competition would not hurt me anyway soon. Maybe IT will sooner but I have at least a cew years to get ready to confront with that situation.
Good luck to all !
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