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The real "problem" with Ukrainian refugees on the German labor market

Unemployment in Germany falls by 0.

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The real "problem" with Ukrainian refugees on the German labor market

Unemployment in Germany falls by 0.2 percentage points. The reasons are mainly the so-called autumn revival and the huge range of jobs.

But this is only superficially good news. Because the crisis is making itself felt, economists are already seeing the first layoffs and reluctance to hire new people.

And apart from the headlines about the fall in unemployment, another problem is emerging. Labor market experts speak of a mismatch.

The supply of vacancies is huge: there are currently 1.93 million, which corresponds to an explosive increase of 66 percent compared to the same month last year.

The number of job seekers is now 2.49 million. The two don't really want to come together.

This is where Friedrich Merz comes into play. At the beginning of the week, the CDU chairman spoke of “social tourism” from Ukraine – a buzzword that the NPD had already used in election campaigns. For lack of evidence, he rowed back the next day and apologized.

But the CDU chairman was right on one point. Germany actually has a “problem” with Ukrainian refugees on the labor market. Germany lacks a clear strategy for dealing with the many hundreds of thousands of people who will be staying here for the foreseeable future.

According to preliminary data from the Federal Employment Agency (BA), around 588,000 Ukrainian nationals are currently registered in the basic security for job seekers, including 386,000 people of working age and 202,000 children. In August, Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) told this newspaper that he saw success in labor market integration. It's about offering people "a professional perspective in Germany."

And it is indeed a success that 45,000 Ukrainian citizens have found employment subject to social security contributions since the beginning of the war. In reality, it should now be significantly more, because the BA only has figures from July.

However, this is offset by the high number of people on basic social security. And this despite the fact that the refugees have above-average qualifications, as surveys by the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research show. Around half of them have completed university education and comparable qualifications, 14 percent have vocational qualifications and 26 percent have higher education.

However, the unemployment among the refugees is not due to the fact that they are engaged in "social tourism" on a large scale - the wrong conclusion that Merz came to. Should there actually be an increase in cases of social fraud, stricter controls are needed. The fact that politics has so far been too lax here was impressively demonstrated in the context of multiple offenders with a connection to Hartz IV from the clan milieu.

Social benefits for refugees from Ukraine, on the other hand, are something completely different. Many people have fled a war, mostly with children. In any case, it helps to talk to them – at least Merz does not seem to have done so – in order to identify the problems that stand in the way of successful integration into the labor market. Because many of the women want to work, but come up against hurdles that are unsurprising and partly homemade.

On the one hand, there is the complicated search for accommodation in view of the expensive and scarce living space in the big cities, where most of the refugees have found shelter. There is also a lack of sufficient childcare and school places for the children.

Much of the unemployment is due to childcare, according to the BA. There is also excessive bureaucracy. Whether health insurance, apartment registration or child benefit: Correspondence is mainly by letter and in German.

Constant official visits slow down the integration into the labor market, because there are often overlaps with the tightly scheduled German courses. Incidentally, the Ukraine is much more modern here: almost all administrative procedures can be processed digitally with the "Dija" app.

Added to this is the sluggish recognition of professional qualifications. Despite the traffic light's protestations that they are finally going to ensure faster processes, labor market experts have so far seen little improvement.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz speaks of "social tourism" in connection with Ukrainian refugees in Germany. Above all, he criticizes the entitlement of refugees to asylum seeker benefits. "He did not provide any evidence for this," said Jan Klauth, editor of the WELT business department.

Source: WORLD

It was certainly right that people from Ukraine were given access to the labor market via the “mass influx directive”. The alternative would have been lengthy asylum procedures during which work is excluded to a certain extent. Only surprisingly few deductions have been made from this in practice.

The crisis does not bode well for integration efforts. Minister of Labor Heil is now extending the short-time allowance again, which is understandable given the pessimistic outlook.

However, the shortcomings of this instrument tend to be ignored, alternatives are not even up for debate - which in turn also has an effect on integration. Months ago, the BA complained about the overload caused by processing.

Because the payment is - how could it be otherwise - bureaucratic and tough. The processing ties up large personnel capacities and the new head of the authorities, Andrea Nahles, finds the coffers emptied in time for taking office.

Spending during the pandemic amounted to almost 50 billion euros. The largest item was the short-time allowance. The reserve of 26 billion euros created before 2020 has been used up.

The actual tasks of the authority, which also includes the labor market integration of migrants, suffer and will probably only be created by new billions in loans from the federal government.

So money is needed for integration. Lot of money. But you could also see it as an investment in the future. Because on the other hand there are the many billions of euros in social benefits - the amount of which will rise again sharply with the introduction of the new citizens' income.

Incidentally, it was Friedrich Merz's party that for 16 years contributed to the fact that little changed in the integration hurdles described by the Ukrainian women. The CDU leader preferred to omit this aspect of his scolding.

"Everything on shares" is the daily stock exchange shot from the WELT business editorial team. Every morning from 7 a.m. with the financial journalists from WELT. For stock market experts and beginners. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music and Deezer. Or directly via RSS feed.

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