€700 Generation

Greek youths who struggle to earn more than €700 a month.

The wave of violence that swept Greece after police in Athens killed a teenager in December 2008 has been linked to the “€700 Generation” – (middle-class) youths trapped in low-paying jobs. As Helena Smith reported in The Guardian:

It is a sickness that starts not so much at the top but at the bottom of Greek society, in the ranks of its troubled youth. For many these are a lost generation, raised in an education system that is undeniably shambolic and hit by whopping levels of unemployment (70 percent among the 18-25s) in a country where joblessness this month jumped to 7.4 percent. If they can find work remuneration rarely rises above €700 (this is, after all, the self-styled €700 generation), never mind the number of qualifications it took to get the job. Often polyglot PhD holders will be serving tourists at tables in resorts.

This phenomenon is not unique to Greece. The Germans use the phraseGeneration Praktikum (intern) to describe the growing social and economic stagnation caused by semi-permanent internships; in France, this group is known as Génération Précaire(precarious) or Génération Stagiaire (intern); and young workers in Spain have been nicknamed mileuristas because they subsist on just €1,000 a month.

The president of the European Youth Forum observed in June 2008:

Despite being the most educated generation ever, young people in Europe today are less likely to enjoy stable and decent employment. … Young people today are the so-called “generation intern” – well-educated graduates who increasingly accept unpaid jobs in the quest for elusive permanent posts.