Webcam update: Lutz starts engineering job at German elevator company

PARIS – After a long and frustrating struggle to land work, Lutz Hentschel has just started his first job — as an engineer for the Otis elevator company.

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This is an update of Class of 2012, the AP's yearlong exploration of Europe's economic crisis through the eyes of five young graduates.

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Lutz feels lucky to have full-time employment in rich Germany, as he looks around at the struggles of youths in the crisis-hit nations of southern Europe. He says he hopes that recent moves by European leaders to stamp out the crisis will start brightening the prospects of the less fortunate.

"Other young people have it more difficult than me," he says.

Lutz's studies at a German technical university have helped him in his job, but he's still finding he has lots to learn.

"The practical and the theoretical thing is different."

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Next up ... Rafa

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