希腊年轻人就业难

    在希腊神话中，天神克罗诺斯为了防止后代推翻自己的统治，而吞食了自己的五个子嗣，只有宙斯在母亲瑞亚的帮助下逃脱了厄运。现在，对于遭受了债务危机余波的沉重打击的希腊年轻人来说，他们可能感觉自己有点像克罗诺斯那些不幸的孩子——仿佛他们就要被希腊的经济局势整个儿吞噬掉，许多年轻人都对未来感到绝望。

    在这个拥有1100万人口的国家中，许多年龄在35岁以下的人已经濒临绝望了。根据最新的统计数据，到去年11月底，在15岁至24岁之间的希腊人口中，失业率已经达到了35.6%的高位，令人惊恐。人们广泛认为，年轻人口的失业率居高不下，正是造成中东当前紧张局势的主要原因之一。不过国际劳工组织表示，这也是一个全球性的问题。国际劳工组织在最近发布的一份报告中指出，全球的年轻失业人口呈上升趋势，并称这些年轻人为“失落的一代”。

    光是在西班牙，年轻人口的失业率就超过了40%。不过在希腊，自从2009年12月以来，这个国家已经深受债务危机的折磨，在这个大背景下，年轻人的失业问题更是引起了强烈的共鸣。如果你把25岁到34岁之间的人口的失业率（17.9%）也计算在内的话，显然可见，希腊的财政困难使人民承担了大量的负担，而35岁以下人口更是首当其冲。

    希腊最大的日报《每日新闻报》（Kathimerini）的知名专栏作家、记者斯达夫罗斯•莱格罗斯指出：“这是希腊面临的最严峻的问题之一。”

    即便是那些拥有学士与硕士学位的人也不能幸免，许多人毕业即失业，还有很多人拿着微薄的薪水，做着与自身专业无关的工作，仅仅为了满足温饱。以斯达夫罗斯•莱格罗斯的女儿勒芙丽为例。勒芙丽今年27岁，她是哥伦比亚大学和戈德史密斯大学的双料硕士，同时拥有传媒和电影研究两个专业的硕士学位。自从去年回到希腊以来，她已经发出了30多份简历，但至今仍毫无收获，只有一两家公司想让她去做不领取薪水的实习生。她现在正考虑回到伦敦去——她有一个学位是在伦敦获得的。

    “我非常伤心，也非常沮丧。我爱我的国家、我的家庭、我的朋友。我的人生在这里，”她说：“你花了很多的钱，付出了很多努力，等你回到祖国后，你却听到他们说：‘你知道吗，这里不适合你。’然后就让你离开。这很不公平。我感觉自己必须在个人生活和事业之间做出取舍。”

    今年34岁的伊沃阿尼斯•弗洛卡斯是伦敦经济学院的工商管理硕士，他对此也有深有共鸣。他已经在希腊发出了787份简历，还投了50份海外简历。他叹道：“我知道到底投了多少份，因为我一直在数着。”他有八年的工作经验，曾效力于公共部门，做过医院的院务主任，也曾效力于私人部门，做过金融分析师。

    伊沃阿尼斯•弗洛卡斯已经结婚了，而且不久就要当爸爸了。因此他拼命挣钱，四处打零工，为各种市场营销公司和制药公司做调查、搜集统计资料。每找人填写一份调查表，他只能赚到10到25欧元。

    他说：“现在不是找工作的时候。如果可以的话，我会离开这个国家。”

    他并不是唯一一个这样想的希腊人。根据一家中间偏左翼的报纸《To Vima》最近发布的调查，在22到35岁的希腊人中，每10个人里，就有4个人在积极地寻找海外的工作机会。另一份由马其顿大学发布的调查显示，在海外求学的希腊留学学生中，有85%的学生都选择留在当地。

    24岁的斯沃•尼科拉奥就是其中的一个。他刚刚在英国华威大学获得国际关系学硕士学位。至少在现在，他还不准备回国。他接受了英国广播公司（BBC World Service）在伦敦的一个实习机会。他说：“我要是回到希腊，要想找到一份称心的工作，机率很渺茫。我想我只有在放假的时候才能回家了。”

    25岁的辛西娅•斯帕诺曾荣获富尔布莱特奖学金，她正在哥伦比亚大学攻读电子工程学硕士学位。她也表示自己不指望短期内会回国工作。“我的朋友和亲戚们都说：‘别回来了。你找不到工作的。’”

    难怪这么多的希腊年轻人看起来如此茫然。在雅典北郊的阿吉亞帕拉斯夫市，美国希腊学院（American College of Greece）的社会学副教授乔治亚•拉古尔米兹经常看见学生们在校园里漫无目的徘徊。她说：“他们看起来没有目标、没有希望。每代人是被其社会意识，以及某一社会事件对其产生的影响而定义的。这一代希腊人将会被定义成经济危机的一代人。他们是‘失落的一代’。”

    希腊总理乔治•帕潘德里欧领导下的社会主义政府也意识到了这一问题。不过政府相信，除了当前的经济危机之外，希腊的人才流失还有其它深层次的原因。尽管上面提到的其它受就业问题困扰的国家各自有不同的深层原因，不过它们的例子都证明，要使一国的劳动人口与其经济需求保持一致，是件十分困难的事。

    希腊教育部长安娜•戴蒙托珀罗斯指出，希腊的劳动力处于失衡状态，大学生毕业生的人数要多于岗位的数量。比如她指出：“光是医生岗位，就出现了30000人的供给过剩。”她补充道，政府即将发起一项活动，鼓励更多的高中学生朝技工方向发展。“社会上存在着对技术性工作的需求，但是我们却没有足够的人才。我们需要的是转变人们进入职场的方式。”

    今年24岁的康斯坦提亚•萨克萨尼是雅典派迪昂政治经济大学（Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences）的毕业生。不过，她并没有从事自己青睐的记者职业，而是在雅典的一家精品店里卖衣服，每月工资900欧元，现在仍然和她的父母住在一起。她表示：“我们这一代人一定是最不幸的一代。我们开始找工作的时候，恰好是经济危机开始的时候。我们没有太多选择。我们要么去国外，要么放弃自己所学的专业，要么就得饿肚子。”还得要避开克罗诺斯。

    译者：朴成奎

    In Greek mythology, the god Cronus devoured five of his offspring to prevent them from overpowering him. Only Zeus, with his mother Rhea's help, escaped the fate of his siblings. Greece's youth, hit hard by the after effects of the debt crisis, may be feeling a bit like one of Cronus's unlucky children these days-as if they are about to be swallowed whole by an economic situation that is leaving many of them feeling hopeless about what the future holds.

    The situation for many under the age of 35 in this country of 11 million is close to desperate. Unemployment for those between the ages of 15 and 24 rang in at an alarming 35.6% at the end of November, the latest statistics available. Youth unemployment, of course, is widely considered one of the drivers to the current unrest in the Middle East, It's also a global problem, according to the International Labor Organization, which called the growing number of the world's unemployed young people, "a lost generation" in a recently released report.

    In Spain alone, the youth unemployment rate is over 40%. But in Greece, the issue resonates within the broader context of the debt crisis that has plagued the country since December of 2009. And if you add in the unemployment rate for those between 25 and 34 -- 17.9% -- it becomes clear that Greeks under the age of 35 are bearing a disproportionate part of the burden stemming from the country's financial difficulties.

    "It's one of the most serious problems facing this country," says respected columnist and journalist Stavros Lygeros of Kathimerini, the largest daily newspaper in Greece.

    Even those with undergraduate and graduate degrees are not immune-many end up without jobs or with low paying ones that have nothing to do with their studies just to make ends meet. Take Lygeros's daughter, Nefeli, 27. The Columbia University and Goldsmith University graduate holds not one, but two, master's degrees in media and film studies. She's sent out 30 some resumes since she returned to Greece last year, but has come up dry, save an offer or two to take on non-paying internships. She's considering moving back to London, where she earned one of her degrees.

    "I'm extremely sad and frustrated. I love my country, my family, my friends, my life is here," she says. "You spend all this money and make all this effort and you come back and you hear, 'You know what, there's nothing for you here.' And then they show you the door.' It's unfair. I feel like I have to choose between my personal life and my career."

    Ioannis Feloukas, 34, a graduate of the London School of Economics with a Masters in Business Administration, can relate. He's sent out 787 resumes in Greece and 50 abroad. "I know exactly how many," he bemoans. "I've kept count." This is a man with eight years of experience too, in both the public sector, as a hospital administrator, and in the private sector, as a financial analyst.

    Married and with a child on the way, he takes what he can get-odd jobs here and there, gathering statistics for various marketing and pharmaceutical companies to collect a mere 10 to 25 euros for each questionnaire he gets someone to fill out.

    "It's a bad time to look for a job," he says. "If I could, I'd leave this country."

    He isn't the only young Greek to feel that way. According to a recent survey published by To Vima, a left-of-center newspaper, four out of 10 Greek college graduates from the ages of 22 to 35 are actively seeking jobs abroad. And another study by the University of Macedonia found that nearly 85% of those who are in colleges abroad are opting to stay there.

    Theo Nikolaou, 24, is one of them. He just completed a master's degree in international relations at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. He's not coming back, at least for now. Instead, he's accepted an internship at the BBC World Service in London. "My chances of getting a job relevant to what I want to do in Greece are pretty slim," he says. "For me, I think, I'll be heading home only for holidays."

    Cynthia Spanou, 25, a Fulbright scholar pursuing a master's degree in electrical engineering at Columbia University does not expect to return any time soon either. "All my friends and relatives say, 'Don't come back. You won't find a job.'"

    Little wonder so many young people in Greece seem to be walking around in a daze. "They seem to have no purpose or hope. They're lost," says adjunct professor of sociology Georgia Lagoumitzi of the students she sees wandering around the campus of the American College of Greece in the northern Athenian suburb of Aghia Paraskevi. "A generation is defined by its social consciousness and how it is impacted by a social event. This one will be defined by the economic crisis. It's a lost generation."

    The socialist government of Prime Minister George Papandreou is aware of the problem, but believes Greece's brain drain has roots that go way beyond the current economic crisis. Though the other countries with employment problems mentioned earlier all have different root causes, their examples bear out how tricky it can be to keep a workforce aligned with a country's economic needs.

    Education minister Anna Diamontopoulos points out that Greece's labor force is out of balance-with more university graduates than there are positions. "We have 30,000 more doctors than are necessary," for example, she says, adding that the government is about to begin a campaign to encourage more high school students to pursue vocational careers. "There is a demand for technical jobs, but we don't have the people. What we need is a shift in the way we approach the workplace."

    Tell that to Konstantia Saksani, 24, a graduate of the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. Instead of pursuing her chosen career as a journalist, she sells clothes at a trendy shop in Athens for 900 euros a month and still lives with her parents. "My generation has to be the unluckiest. We started looking for work just as the crisis began," she says. "We don't have many options. We either go abroad, forget what we've studied, or go hungry." That and try to stay out of Cronus's way.