The Greek economy is a mess: People face limits on how much money they can withdraw from ATMs, businesses can’t pay their suppliers, and government leaders are planning how to deal with medicine shortages and issue their own currency if the country leaves the Eurozone.
So it’s no surprise that fed-up Greeks are trying to get out.
The share of Greek jobseekers looking outside Greece for new jobs has spiked in the past couple of weeks, according to data from job-listing site Indeed.com, which says it has more than 180 million unique visitors per month and millions of Greek users.
The share of Greek job searches outside Greece reached 33% in July, more than double the average for the previous three years, according to Indeed. Since 2011, the percentage of Greek searches abroad ranged between 10% and 16% (with one exception: Last July’s turmoil over whether the International Monetary Fund would keep funneling bailout funds to Greece, which spurred searches abroad to pop above 25%, before settling back to the average).
Indeed said the most popular destination for jobs abroad was the UK, followed by the US, Germany, Switzerland, and Canada—which are among the countries with the lowest unemployment rates in the world.
And a significant number of job searches on Indeed were for more skilled workers in the fields like dentistry, engineering, and medicine—a sign Greece’s brain drain is continuing.
“Until the country emerges from economic limbo, it seems likely the people who might otherwise be looking for jobs in Greece will stay on the sidelines or look to other countries,” said Indeed.com chief economist Tara Sinclair.
By the look of things, it’s going to be awhile.
Quartz’s full coverage of Greece’s debt crisis can be found here.