According to a recent survey conducted by the Trendence Institute in Berlin, the number of applications European business school graduates expect to send out before they get their first job has increased from 28,5 in 2002 to 38; and, on average, European graduates now expect to spend almost six months looking for a job.
But in Greece and Spain, where unemployment is above 25 per cent and youth unemployment double that, the expectation is ten months. There are indications that, while the crisis has no doubt had a devastating effect on unskilled and even semi-skilled workers, South African graduates appear to have fared better than their European counterparts.