100 days of the federal government: assessment of labor market policy

Today marks 100 days in office for the black-red federal government: time for an initial assessment of its labor market policy.

The coalition announced its first reform project as an amendment to the Working Hours Act. In future, a weekly upper limit will apply – a proposal that divides trade unions and opposition parties (€).

Federal Minister of Economics Reiche also caused unrest within the coalition when she brought up a pension reform with a higher standard retirement age, citing rising life expectancy. The SPD and trade unions, on the other hand, want to stick to the current retirement age in order to protect the socially disadvantaged. At least there was agreement on the recently adopted pension package, which aims to stabilize the pension level at 48% until 2031 and extend the mothers' pension.

We were also interested in the following topics:

• Inclusion in the labor market: Despite often having high qualifications, people with disabilities encounter structural barriers in the labor market. The Federal Agency for Civic Education outlines the obstacles that stand in the way and the solutions that exist for better inclusion.

• Germany: a stronghold of working from home: As an analysis by the job portal Indeed shows, Germany ranks second in an international comparison of working from home, with 14.8% of job advertisements offering location-independent work, just behind the UK with 15.1%.

• Working hours per capita at record high: The Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) reports a record value for working hours per capita of just under 29 hours per week. According to the BiB analysis, the increase is due in particular to higher labor force participation among women, whose share has increased by almost a third over the last three decades.

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