Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

High-stakes poll for Germany’s long-term unemployed

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Dozens of unemployed people troop into a church in the working-class Garath district of Duesseldorf, western Germany each Friday to load up on donated food, a small gesture towards those left by the wayside in a booming economy.


The number of people out of work has halved in Germany since 2005, but a core of around 900,000 who have been looking for a job for more than a year have proved difficult to place.


What’s more, they have become a campaign issue in elections slated for September 24, as Chancellor Angela Merkel has promised the economy can reach full employment by 2025, in part by improving support for long-term unemployed people.


Social-Democratic rival Martin Schulz has vowed to free up public cash for professional training to get the jobless fighting fit.


Reactivating workers is as big a challenge in Duesseldorf as anywhere.


Some 7.5 per cent of people in Duesseldorf are out of work, higher than the national average of 5.7 per cent. Around 64,000 people eke out a living on social benefits.


The church in Garath hands out food to 220 households, and new registrations are tightly controlled by 63-year-old pensioner Burkhard Schellenberg.


More than half of visitors are unemployed.


“As an unemployed person, you don’t get much money” to live on, said Jan-Erik Flory, 21.


Since leaving school aged 17, Flory has ricocheted between temporary jobs and work integration programmes.


He hopes to become a gardener, but “no-one has offered me a job in the region,” he grumbled.


Tanja, a 45-year-old former communications executive hobbling on an inflamed knee, stopped work to raise her children.


“I’ve been looking for a new job for six years,” she said, complaining that the job centre has been little help.


The job centres created in Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s far-reaching 2005 labour market reforms are a one-stop shop for social benefits. Single people receive 409 euros per month, plus contributions to rent and energy bills and coaching supposed to help job-seekers find work.


“Two-thirds of our clients have no professional qualifications, and a third have no school leaving qualification. That makes integrating into a society where qualified workers are most in demand difficult,” said Ingo Zielonkowsky, director of the Duesseldorf job centre.


— AFP


Jean-Philippe Lacour


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