Econintersect: Everybody has been focused on the Greek sovereign debt bailout with that Athens looking to Germany, France the ECB (European Central Bank), the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and just about everyone else in the world to help resolve the country’s crushing sovereign debt load. Little noticed is that Germany is asking Greece for help. And, in some small way, it may help with the austerity solution being demanded from the Greeks by the “saviors.”Germany has a labor shortage and Greece has high unemployment, currently 17.6% according to Elliott Morss at GEI Analysis. But the demand in Germany may be limited. It could be for highly skilled and professional “labor.” The Shanghai Daily has a specific example:
Greek civil engineer Christos Kotanidis moved to Erlangen in southern Germany three months ago and quickly found work with industrial giant Siemens.
The 33-year-old’s former company in Saloniki put him on part-time earlier this year because, struck by the financial crisis, it could no longer afford to pay full salaries. It took Kotanidis only six weeks to land a full-time position in Germany.
“I decided to look for a job in Germany because it has a stable economy,” Kotanidis said. “In Greece the economic situation is bad now, but the future looks even worse.”
Sources: GEI Analysis and Shanghai Daily
Note: The Shanghai Daily story appeared on Econintersect’s Asia Newspaper page.
