No place like home for many young Greek job-seekers
Although employment barriers have dropped significantly around the world, many young Greeks would still rather look for work in Greece, according to a survey carried out across 189 countries by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and The Network, which comprises 50 leading job websites including Greece’s skywalker.gr.
Against a global average rate of 64 percent of young people who say they would seek employment abroad, only 60 percent of Greeks would do so, including the 5 percent of Greek respondents based abroad. This rate ranks Greece 35th in the world in that respect.
The head of BCG in Greece, Vassilis Antoniadis, said during a presentation of the survey that a higher rate of young people in Greece said they would rather seek work in their home country compared to respondents in other countries, and that they said the most important incentive is employers’ appreciation of their work.
Antoniadis added that if local companies and the Greek government do not pay attention to the huge changes and increased mobility they will miss out on the most talented human resources.
The survey results also show that employees are motivated by factors beyond salary – although the latter does of course play a role – with appreciation of their work, good relations with colleagues, and a good balance between personal life and work being the three main pillars of satisfaction, according to the findings.
The top countries Greeks would move to in order to find work are the UK (18 percent), Switzerland (13 percent) and the US (12 percent). The other destinations in the Greeks’ top 10 are Germany, France, Sweden, Italy, Canada, Cyprus and Mexico.
Greece is the third choice of the Finns, the fifth choice of the French and the seventh choice of the Dutch, according to the survey.
