Βy S. Papapetros
Greece’s statistical authority (EL.STAT) this week announced that roughly 21,400 Greeks with post-graduate degrees remain unemployed, with another 7,500 under employed.
The number is derived from the second quarter of 2016.
The statistics bureau also put the number of “highly specialized personnel” at 160,000 people out of the active population in the country.
Slim prospects for professional advancement for such high specialized individuals, coupled with stagnant salary scales and the overall (dour) economic outlook in the country are behind the intensification of the “brain drain” phenomenon, analysts warn.
According to a recent study by Endeavor Greece, Greek expatriates that fled the ongoing economic crisis in the country have generated 50 billion euros in GDP for their respective “adopted” homelands.
The study notes that 350,000 Greeks departed from the country for professional reasons, beginning in January 2008 until June 2016, while the Bank of Greece puts the figure at 427,000 people.
Most of this sample of people are considered to hold higher education credentials.
