[Rocky]

"Mr Schröder showed some impatience at the weekend, when he said the "endless talk" by managers about shifting jobs abroad had to stop. "

What.. outsourcing?

[ChadGore]

Yet another failed socialist regime.

[spinestein]

[Under the reform, welfare recipients who had not been included in the jobless statistics are now accounted for in the figures. Economists estimate the bulk of the 500,000 additional job seekers recorded since January reflected such statistical changes.]


Huh? If I read this right, if you were a welfare recipient you could have been considered to be employed?

[spinestein]

[Struggling to make sense of the official data, economists have turned to the unemployment components of business sentiment surveys for additional understanding of the German labour market. "What we see there certainly does not point to an improvement, but it does not suggest a deterioration either," Mr Schumacher said.]


I'm perpetually amused by the attempts of the advocates of welfare statism to reinterpret job losses in Euro-socialist countries as "not a deterioration" while they claim that a robust and still growing economy in the U.S. with half the unemployment rate and twice the GDP growth that results from tax cuts and a reduction of welfare statism is not really an improvement because it's still possible to find a bum on some street corner.

[Notwithstanding]

"The figure of 5.216 million people, or 12.6% of the working-age population, is the highest jobless rate in Europe's biggest economy since the 1930s."

from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4307303.stm

[Fresh Wind]

Clearly, Germany needs an emergency tax increase.

[snowsislander]

I think that the change in definition for "unemployment rate"is responsible for a good bit of this perception of great problems, although I have read about a lot of problems in German SMEs (mittelstandische? something like that in German) over the last few years.

I looked at some less-than-current German participation rates; while they weren't from an official source and should be discounted to a degree, assuming some accuracy to the figures they weren't all that bad.

I haven't yet found a good government source for German labor information; if anyone has one, could you please post it or freepmail it?

[longjack]

German sites are reporting that the unemployment figures went down slightly in March.

Here's one example (in German):

tagesschau.de....Zahl der Arbeitslosen im März leicht gesunken

"Welt", "FAZ" and "N24" had the same type of report. They have the Finance Minister, Cement, saying that they have bottomed out and are now moving upwards. He's predicting they will go under the 5 million unemployed mark this spring.

I haven't seen anything on "Spiegel", though.

I'm curious why these articles and that from your post are so contradictory. Maybe I'm missing something completely obvious.

longjack

[longjack]

German ping.

longjack

[Joe Boucher]

If it hurts germany its gotta be good.
Hey germans, poor econemy? couldn't happen to a more deserving place you ratt bastards.

[M. Espinola]

Everything is not economically perfect in Euroland.

[Savage Beast]

Remember the post-war economic miracle that was West Germany?

Remember the post-war economic disaster that was East Germany?

Well guess what happened.

When the Cold War came to an end, the West Germans decided that it would be a good idea to emulate the East Germans and replace capitalism with Marxism.

Nevermind that capitalism was responsible for the West German economic miracle--as well as the U.S. economic miracle and all the other economic miracles of the world.

Nevermind that Marxims was responsible for the East German catastrophe.

And nevermind that Marxism has resulted in nothing but failure and economic, political, and social devastation everywhere it has been tried. And nevermind that a totalitarian, tyrranical government is its prerequisite.

Why would the West Germans decide to do this?

They must have been asleep at the wheel.

Or maybe they succumbed to the deadly, suicidal sickness of decadence that has swept the West like the plague of past centuries and promises to be far more devastating.

And remember: Millions of Americans--including the Democrat Party--are working overtime to make the U.S.A. follow the example of West Germany and to spread this deadly, suicidal sickness of decadence throughout America.

Thank God for the American Heartland!

[longfellow]

Did they start picking out new uniforms yet?