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Germany Slides To End Of The List Of 20 Industrial Countries
How the mighty have fallenGerman research organisation, Bertelsmann Foundation, says Germany's ranking has declined to the lowest among the world's 20 developed member countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Germany's ranking has been particularly impacted by its weakness in economic growth and rigid labour market, the organisation said following a study it conducted. Called "Benchmarking 2004: Labour Market and Employment", the study makes a comparative evaluation of the various states based on factors such as unemployment rate and the gross domestic product. While in 1991 Germany was still ahead of other countries such as the USA, Britain, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, these countries have, meanwhile, been able to overtake Germany mainly because of two factors: the weak labour market and the low economic growth in Germany. "Other countries have succeeded, despite the same basic global economic conditions, to increase employment," maintains Eric Thode, an economic researcher with the Bertelsmann Foundation and a co-author of the study. Since the last study was compiled, some 700,000 jobs were lost in Germany. Between 2000 and 2002, the employment rate (the share of the working force having a steady job) was around 65.3 percent. As a comparison, some 80 percent of the work force in Switzerland have jobs. "Viewed from a long-term perspective, the employment rate in Germany has stagnated at a relatively low level," the Bertelsmann study says. "A big problem is that no new jobs are being created because of over-regulations," says Thode. Posted by: tipper 2004-08-18 |
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