Holidaying in Greece right now may be the only hope left to help a country who has been through one of the deepest peacetime recessions of any industrialised economy. Greece’s gross domestic product has dropped 22 percent since 2008.

According to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the perceptible signs of Greece’s recovery are the tourists pouring into Athens. It is these people who keep Greeks still employed, although avoiding becoming one of the 1.3 million people out of work is still a serious concern for the 3.6 million Greeks who have managed to hold a job in the sixth year of the slump.

28-year-old Olympia Angeli says she’s lucky the tourists keep her employed. Clinging on to the security of working as a waitress even though her wages have been halved in the past three years, she says that she can’t afford to lose her 500 euro monthly salary, needed to support her aging parents. Living in a rented apartment with her parents, age 77 and 65, she says, “A lot of people moved back home because of the crisis so their parents could support them, but…I support my parents, help pay the rent, help look after them.”

While wage and pension cuts have reduced the country’s deficit, there remains a decline in consumer confidence and failure to tackle tax collection and debt. The International Monetary Fund and European Union program for Greece has left the country with the hope that it can still achieve its ultimate goal of staying in the euro area and of being able to recover and grow. However the IMF and the EU have had to commit more resources for a longer period than initially predicted. The results remain disappointing and the final outcome uncertain.

The ancient streets and squares of Athens, once glistening marble and frequented by scholars and merchants, are now inhabited by beggars and at times angry protesters – a sure sign of the price citizens are paying for their leaders’ policy mistakes. The unemployment rate of 27.4 percent has more than doubled since Greece started receiving the first installments of its international bailout in May 2010. The rate will still be 21 percent by 2016, according to an IMF forecast this June.

Angeli said she stuck with waiting tables to avoid joining the people who ended up leaving the country to find work. A friend of hers however who did leave got a job working in a pub on her first day in London and is now planning to buy an apartment. Angeli, however refuses to lose hope.Although she turned down her first offer to study history at Ionian University because, as she puts it, “history doesn’t put food on the table,” Angeli considers herself lucky to have managed to support herself throughout the crisis, and is hopeful that she can return to her studies in the future so she can open her own business or at least move up to managing one.

“It’s not total darkness; there’s a dawn maybe,” she said before heading back to work. “But it’s still really far in the distance. It’s taking a long time.”