eKathimerini — The birth rate is dropping, the population growth rate has been in negative territory for five years, and more than half a million people – most of them young – have left crisis-riven Greece since 2010. At the same time, over 50 percent of young adults continue to live with their parents right up until their 30s.
These phenomena are becoming more pronounced by the year and have a common starting point: high unemployment among young people and the particularly low salaries for those lucky enough to find a job. Official data show that the average Greek aged up to 24 years will get 380 euros per month net if they land a job.
In Greece young workers know that they must reach the age of 25 to break free of the 200- or 400-euro salary brackets (depending on working hours), regardless of how much effort they put in or the number of years they have been employed.
Of the total 1.115 million unemployed recorded by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) in the first quarter of 2017, some 125,000 are aged under 25. More than a third of them (some 44,000) hold at least one degree. And how many under-25s are employed (full- or part-time)? An estimated 141,600, which means that up to the age of 25, the numbers of those with a job and those without are almost the same.
