Jobs are being slashed across Europe. New ones are created only in Germany. We went to Berlin to find out more about the German employment miracle. It seems that all of Europe is suffering from the crisis, but is that so? No. The EU's biggest economy is also its strongest and healthiest and the only one to reduce unemployment, despite the crisis. Before the Bundestag, the Minister of Labour could barely hide her pride. Our economy is strong and we have a robust job market. We have the highest level of full employment since reunification. We have halved the long-term unemployment rate. The Minister's enthusiasm doesn't resonate with people on the streets of Berlin. Only a few kilometres from her office, we meet this 19-year-old who can find neither a traineeship nor a decently paid job. He talked to us on condition of remaining anonymous. There's only part-time and temp jobs. Most jobs you get offered are 40 hours per week. If you get 600 or 700 euros, you're lucky. The national job centre sent our interviewee to a private job agency. He is still far from earning his living but no longer appears in the official unemployment statistics, like this woman. No one wants to hire me because of my age. I wanted to do a computer course. I was told that it was possible but they still refused. 'You won't get a job, even young people don't.' As a jobseeker who is past the age of 58 and has not had a job for a year she doesn't appear in the official statistics either. About ten years ago Germany reformed its employment market with the Hartz laws. The rate of unemployment has been falling since then. We asked this unionist if it really has, or only appeared to, in the statistics. We can see that some ten years ago 100% of the unemployed received the full unemployment benefit. And now it's only 50% of the original number. But these people haven't gone away nor are they working. They get social benefits under the Hartz IV scheme. The Hartz reforms brought many part-time jobs for 400 euros a month. These workers are not covered by pension or social security schemes but they no longer appear in the national unemployment statistics. For me, this is actually a statistical trick to create the impression that unemployment is not a problem here. In reality, there is still mass unemployment in Germany. There's a lot of pressure on unskilled workers who earn little even in regular employment. Unlike most EU countries, there is no minimum wage in Germany. This is actually detrimental to the other EU countries. In my opinion the financial crisis is a result of economies like Greece, Spain and Portugal becoming less competitive as they lose their wage advantages. The wage advantages of other economies were eroded by the low-wage strategy that Germany has pursued since the turn of the century. In the long run, this strategy might come to harm the German economy. If Germany doesn't change its economic policy, including the labour market policy, misery will become more widespread in Germany. The wages of those in the lower 30-50% of income groups will fall, and perhaps also in the higher income brackets. And this means less purchasing power, less economic development.
EuroparlTV video ID: 4a8c615d-e49e-4b49-a97b-9fdd00ff13c2
Reporter: Jobless in Germany parliament house | |
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| News & Politics | Upload TimePublished on 30 Oct 2012 |
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