By NIKI KITSANTONIS

ATHENS - An increasing number of young college graduates are leaving Greece as a deepening recession chokes a job market already crippled by an entrenched culture of cronyism. And the outlook for a turnaround is not good. The national debt, estimated at 300 billion euros , is larger than Greece’s gross domestic product, suggesting years of austerity ahead.

According to a survey published in August, 7 out of 10 Greek college graduates want to work abroad. Four in 10 are seeking jobs abroad or are pursuing further education to gain a foothold in the foreign job market. The latest official figures show that unemployment among 15- to 24-year-olds was 29.8 percent in June, compared with about 20 percent across the European Union. For Greeks age 25 to 34, the figure was 16.2 percent in June, up from 11.8 percent in 2009.

Overall unemployment was 11.6 percent, up from 8.6 percent. Yannis Gio, 22, moved to London in July . In Greece, he said, “I couldn’t find a job because I didn’t have any inside connections.” Mr. Gio has lined up interviews for positions there as well as in Paris and Beijing.

Graduates with work experience like Alexis Cohen, 35, are leaving, too. His 10-year career as a sound engineer has foundered in recent months because the singers and musicians who are his clients are staging fewer concerts. He has set up job interviews in California . “If you want to have a decent life, you can’t do it here,” he said. “It’s always been difficult. Now it’s nearly impossible.” In the 1950s and 1960s, thousands of people left Greece to seek a better life .

During the booming 1980s and 1990s, after Greece joined the European Union, many returned to a thriving economy. In 2008, the first signs of a recession appeared. Earlier this year, the debt crisis required Greece to seek 110 billion euros in loan guarantees from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, which demanded an array of budget cuts in return.

“Today the people leaving Greece are not going to wash dishes” in New York City, said George Pagoulatos, an associate professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business . “They are graduate students in New York choosing to stay and work there.” There could be a “brain drain” if talented young people see few prospects in Greece, he said.

But he also expressed doubts about their prospects in other Western countries where unemployment is a problem as well. Alexander Kentikelenis, 26, has a degree in international relations from Athens University, and a master’s in international development from the University of Cambridge in England. He is scheduled to return to Cambridge soon to start work on a doctorate in sociology. His original ambition to enter Greek politics has faded.

“I realized that the system consistently favors the well connected over the talented,” Mr. Kentikelenis said recently. Most economists agree that the flow of emigration among young Greeks will not diminish until the economy’s structural flaws are addressed and growth resumes. The question is how long that will take. “The reforms will not start paying off until 2012,” said Mr. Pagoulatos, the university professor.

“With all this uncertainty, how many young Greeks are going to wait two years?”