Abstract
This paper discusses the transition into the labour market among higher education graduates from 2000 to date. It identifies a number of trends. First, this transition is protracted and not completed for the majority of Greek graduates until their thirties. Second, the labour market is fragmented along education level, place of living (urban or non-urban), gender, age and ethnic lines. Third, higher education does not seem to play a socially integrative role, as it does not shield against unemployment, emigration and precariousness. Fourth, the economic crisis has exacerbated enduring problems integral to the labour market and its weak connections with higher education. The multiple and overlapping problems underlying the transition from higher education to the labour market is at the crux of the economic and political problems Greece is facing and they point to a ticking bomb at the foundations of the Greek society.
Highlights
Transition issues facing Greek graduates are explained through the traditional orientation of higher education towards the public sector (Kanellopoulos et al, 2003) and through the mismatch between the production of graduates and the labour market capacity to absorb them (Karamessini, 2008; Liagouras et al, 2003)
The labour market is fragmented along education level, place of living, gender, age and ethnic lines
The multiple and overlapping problems underlying the transition from higher education to the labour market is at the crux of the economic and political problems Greece is facing and they point to a ticking bomb at the foundations of the Greek society
Summary
Transition issues facing Greek graduates are explained through the traditional orientation of higher education towards the public sector (Kanellopoulos et al, 2003) and through the mismatch between the production of graduates and the labour market capacity to absorb them (Karamessini, 2008; Liagouras et al, 2003). This paper discusses the transition into the labour market among higher education graduates from 2000 to date. Between 1997 and 2009 alone, higher education graduates in the 25-64 year-old group increased by 8% (from 16% to 24%), upper secondary school qualiication holders by 9% (from 29% to 38%) and non-completion rates for upper secondary education reduced by 17% (from 56% to 39%) (OECD, 2011).
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