Both of these measures helped improve the situation on the German labour market significantly. The number of persons in work has risen by three million since 2005 and now stands at an all-time high. The number of registered unemployed has fallen from almost five million in 2005 to less than three million today. And the average duration of unemployment has declined sharply.
This has played a part in Germany’s becoming the anchor of stability in the euro area. Looking forward, however, it quickly becomes clear that the healthy condition of the German economy is certainly not assured on a long-term basis. Disregarding migration effects for the moment, there will be one-and-a-half million people fewer on the labour market in 2020. That is a decline of 2.5%.