Aliki Katsoni is packing up her Athens apartment and heading for Rome. Six years after graduating from college, she hasn't been able to find a job in teaching and has been struggling to make ends meet as a waitress.
SOUNDBITE: ALIKI KATSONI, 31, saying:
"I thought, what am I going to do? Stay another year here, to do cafe and to be sad for all this situation? And do nothing? I have to do something else, to restart, to find something that makes me feel better, because I have to. I'm young."
The time is right she says. She's even bought a travel crate for her dog Nin.
SOUNDBITE: ALIKI KATSONI, 31, saying:
If I had a good job here, I will stay in Athens. I like (it) - it's my city, it's OK, (edit) But I can't live with 750 euros. I can't."
With the unemployment rate at 16 percent -- Katsoni is just one of a growing number of talented young Greeks seeking greener pastures away from home.
Venetia Kousia heads the Athens branch of the international job recruiting agency Manpower.
SOUNDBITE: Head Of Job Recruitment Agency Manpower Venetia Kousia saying:
"If you send your bright minds abroad, in other words, if you have a brain drain, it is very bad for the country as you have a shortage of people who can help with the country's development."
A recent job event focused on working abroad was overrrun by thousands of Greeks. It's another sign of growing frustration .... as new proposed austerity measures suggest Greece's bleak economic forecast could get worse before it gets better.
Deborah Gembara, Reuters.
SOUNDBITE: ALIKI KATSONI, 31, saying:
"I thought, what am I going to do? Stay another year here, to do cafe and to be sad for all this situation? And do nothing? I have to do something else, to restart, to find something that makes me feel better, because I have to. I'm young."
The time is right she says. She's even bought a travel crate for her dog Nin.
SOUNDBITE: ALIKI KATSONI, 31, saying:
If I had a good job here, I will stay in Athens. I like (it) - it's my city, it's OK, (edit) But I can't live with 750 euros. I can't."
With the unemployment rate at 16 percent -- Katsoni is just one of a growing number of talented young Greeks seeking greener pastures away from home.
Venetia Kousia heads the Athens branch of the international job recruiting agency Manpower.
SOUNDBITE: Head Of Job Recruitment Agency Manpower Venetia Kousia saying:
"If you send your bright minds abroad, in other words, if you have a brain drain, it is very bad for the country as you have a shortage of people who can help with the country's development."
A recent job event focused on working abroad was overrrun by thousands of Greeks. It's another sign of growing frustration .... as new proposed austerity measures suggest Greece's bleak economic forecast could get worse before it gets better.
Deborah Gembara, Reuters.
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