(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-16 09:34

Nico Graewert, 25, found a job as a cook in Switzerland that got him off the jobless rolls in his hometown of Hoyerswerda, east of Berlin. He had 24 hours to pack, collect travel costs from the local Labour Office, and move south.

"I'm really glad I went through it all," Graewert told the Lausitzer Rundschau newspaper, which recently reported the local office helped nearly 300 jobless Germans move abroad in the last year. "No matter what happens down the road it's a lot better to be in Switzerland with a job than to be unemployed in Hoyerswerda."

Katarina Jaerka left her hometown of Dresden in 2006 for a job in Austria and then Fuerteventura, where she now works as a hotel receptionist.

"It wasn't possible to find a job in Germany," said Jaerka, 24, who has a degree in hotel management. "I was surprised how much easier it was abroad. But I hope to go back home someday."

TRAINING PAID FOR TOO

The Labour Office also spends heavily training jobless Germans to work abroad -- including offering language courses.

One centre in the eastern town of Glauchau offers Dutch and other language courses for Germans preparing to move. It also trains would-be emigrants about different practices abroad.

"Construction work is organized quite a bit differently in the Netherlands and if you don't know that before going there you'll have problems," said Holger Oerter, an instructor at the training centre that works closely with the local Labour Office.

"Masons, carpenters and builders do things differently in Holland. They're much more specialized. But we also train people for work in Switzerland and other countries."

The training centre was created in 2001 for two reasons.

"The first aim was to help unemployed people get training and qualifications for jobs abroad and, secondly, it's a livelihood," said Oerter. "We need a job too."

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