FRANKFURT (Dow Jones) – Long-term unemployment in Germany is increasing significantly again with the Corona crisis for the first time in almost 20 years. According to the Federal Employment Agency, it has increased by around a third since the beginning of 2020 alone. “The number of long-term unemployed had fallen below 700,000 before the pandemic, but has now risen to over 900,000 again,” said the chairman of the Federal Employment Agency, Detlef Scheele, in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
“I fear that for the first time since the labor market reforms of the 2000s we will have to deal with rising basic unemployment,” said Scheele. Base unemployment denotes a solidified unemployment that does not simply decrease again even in an upswing.
People who have been looking for a job for a year or more are considered long-term unemployed. “This time, we are not only dealing with an economic downturn that is dragging on – the pandemic is accelerating the transformation,” emphasized Scheele. With the technological change, the range of simpler activities is decreasing. “This is particularly true of helper skills, especially in industry,” he said.
“That is why it is important that we can now quickly open up new perspectives with targeted further training,” emphasized Scheele, speaking out in favor of the broad use of appropriate funding instruments in employment agencies.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 27, 2021 12:03 ET (17:03 GMT)