The numbers are getting better and better. But years of young people migrating to the East and the threat of poverty in old age have become deeply ingrained in the collective consciousness.
In the labor market, the east of Germany has continued to catch up in recent years. However, the west still has a lead in terms of wages and productivity levels. According to a paper presented in Gütersloh by the Bertelsmann Foundation, it is therefore not surprising that more east than west Germans have the impression that they are also disadvantaged in terms of living standards.
The average wage in the east is 3,157 euros, while in the west it is 3,752 euros. The wage levels have become increasingly similar in recent decades. After reunification in the 1990s, the gap was still 26 percent. Today, people in the eastern federal states receive 15.9 percent less for their work than in the west.
According to the authors of the Bertelsmann Foundation, the reason for this is the different productivity levels. In construction, trade and services, things have become much more similar. But in the manufacturing sector, according to the analysis, the east is still only at 76 percent of the west’s level, even 35 years after reunification. To solve the problem, the authors are calling for big names to settle here. “Large companies create space for research, regional suppliers and business-related services,” the paper states. This creates better-paid jobs in promising professions.
The figures for the labor market in East and West are almost the same or almost the same. The employment rate in the East is 76.7 percent and in the West 77.3 percent. The unemployment rate in the East is currently 7.2 percent. In the years after the 2000s, this figure was significantly higher at almost 19 percent. The rate in the West is currently 5.3 percent and thus still below the figure in the East. The proportion of long-term unemployed in East and West is equal at 34 percent.
According to the Bertelsmann Foundation, the high unemployment and the exodus of young people after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 have become deeply ingrained in the collective consciousness. “The effects are still noticeable today, as public services in rural regions continue to thin out and many of those unemployed back then now face poverty in old age. This contributes to the perception that people are still disadvantaged – even if the East German labor market is in a much better position today than it was 30 years ago,” says Eric Thode, labor market expert at the Bertelsmann Foundation.
Source: Stern
