Speaking Of The Dark Side

February 8, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hypocrisy Tags: Berlin, Economy, Employment, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, Jobs, Satire, Unemployment, Wages Leave a comment

Here’s a little tidbit about the dark side of “Germany’s jobs miracle.”

“BEST LOW WAGE SECTOR IN EUROPE”

Job growth in Germany has been especially strong for low wage and temporary agency employment because of deregulation and the promotion of flexible, low-income, state-subsidised so-called “mini-jobs”.

The number of full-time workers on low wages – sometimes defined as less than two thirds of middle income – rose by 13.5 percent to 4.3 million between 2005 and 2010, three times faster than other employment, according to the Labour Office.

Germany can only hope that other European countries do not emulate its own wage deflationary policies too closely, as demand will dry up: “If everyone is doing same thing, there won’t be anyone left to export to.”

PS: Like I noted on a post the other day, the USA and Germany have more in common than they think. Now the Greeks are burning German flags, too.

Europeans Hurting Republican Feelings Again

January 10, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Hurt Feelings Tags: Berlin, Employment, Europe, Europeans, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, Satire, Working 2 Comments

The title reads: Greeks and Italians Work Harder Than Americans.

One common reaction to the European debt crisis has been to blame the victim: If only those Greeks/Italians would work harder, like us Americans/Germans, then they wouldn’t be in this pickle, the thinking goes.

Except it’s not, how do you say, true: Greeks and Italians actually work more than Americans and Germans.

How Miraculous

August 19, 2011 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness Tags: Berlin, Economy, Employment, German, Germans, Germany, Jobs 2 Comments

Hidden behind the so-called German economic miracle is an underclass of low-paid employees whose incomes have benefited little from the country’s stability and in fact have shrunk in real terms over the last decade.

Despite Germany’s renowned inflation-fighting efforts, which kept consumer price increases at an average of 1.7 percent a year from 2000 to 2010, more and more low-income Germans report that they cannot make ends meet despite having a job and that they must rely upon state aid to supplement their income.

Nowhere is this deepening chasm more visible than in Berlin-Mitte, the prosperous center of the capital, full of handsome government buildings and fine restaurants that cater to officials and lobbyists.

On a rainy summer morning here, only a 10-minute walk from the glamorous Unter Den Linden boulevard, hundreds of poorly dressed men and women lined up inside the district employment office. Some of them had come to look for work, some were applying for state help and some just wanted to accompany a friend.

“They cannot live off their income. Their wages are just too low. They have no choice but to receive help from the state.”

Bad Jobs Must Go

August 6, 2011 By Hermann Observer in Heconomy, Hysteria Tags: Atomic energy, Berlin, Employment, Fukushima, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, Nuclear energy, Satire 1 Comment

Wow. Even the Brave New Non-Nuclear World (in Germany) demands its tribute.

10,000 jobs at Germany’s energy giant Eon will have to go, for instance. But these folks will gladly take on this burden because its what “the people” want. Unfortunately, only about one third of those gladly taking on the burden will be German employees, but you can bet that there will be further opportunites for them to excel in the very near brave new future.

Das sind mehr als zehn Prozent der gesamten Belegschaft. Damit würde der Sparkurs des Konzerns viel härter ausfallen als bisher bekannt.

Everything Is So Wunderbar Here

August 3, 2011 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy Tags: Berlin, Employment, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, Jobs, Satire, Work Leave a comment

When it comes to the German economy and the jobs here, right?

Right. Sort of. Think again. Granted, Germans love nothing better than to bitch and moan about anything and everything they can, their jobs included, but the latest phase of a study done by the Universität Duisburg-Essen has shown that based on a scale from 1 (awful) to 10 (great) German on-the-job satisfaction has dropped from 7.6 to 6.8 during the past 25 years.

In an international comparison, German is even way down at the bottom of the list, the only workers being less satisfied coming from ex-East Block nations like Slowakia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Russia. But at least now the West Germans are just as miserable as the East Germans are, the study says. So that’s progress, I guess.

Hmmm. I guess nothing ever is as it seems.

Im internationalen Vergleich rangiert Deutschland in der Studie weit hinten auf Rang 18 – nur in den ehemaligen Ostblock-Staaten Slowakei, Ukraine, Bulgarien und Russland seien die Arbeitnehmer demnach noch unzufriedener.

Germans Meant “Work Harder”

June 5, 2011 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Hypocrisy Tags: Berlin, Debt Crisis, Employment, Europe, German, Germans, Germany, Greece, Humor, Satire, Statistics 2 Comments

Down south (in battling the Greek debt crisis, for instance). Not longer. A study based on OECD and Eurostat figures has determined that Germans work less annually than their no good and lazy Southern European neighbors.

The study indicates that “a German’s average annual work duration (1,390 hours) was substantially lower than for a Greek (2,119), an Italian (1,773) a Portuguese (1,719) and a Spaniard (1,654).”

But at least for that the Germans work more intensely, right? Not according to that study, they don’t.

But at least they mean well, or something?

“Germany’s productivity per head remains close to the average of southern European countries. Its hourly productivity rate is above average but not better than France or Greece,”

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Tag Archives: Employment