Equivalence Report 2024: Overview of progress and challenges

Exactly one week ago, Interior Minister Faeser and Economics Minister Habeck presented the German government's new equivalence report. The report aims to show transparently where Germany stands on the path to equivalent living conditions and what progress is currently being made.

Only through equality can a “resilient society with fair opportunities for participation” be guaranteed. The survey is based on a combination of objectively measurable quantitative data and subjective qualitative assessments by citizens. To this end, eight focus groups were assembled to present and discuss their assessments on various topics such as engagement, skilled workers, mobility, and climate. In combination with quantitative research, significant differences between west and east as well as north and south were observed. Differences between urban and rural areas also became apparent.

However, the report positively highlights that for the majority of the equality indicators examined, the differences are tending to decrease and a convergence process between the regions can be observed for 27 of the 38 indicators. For example, the regions are converging in economic terms in terms of GDP, unemployment rate, business registrations, and the proportion of self-employed people. Increased differences are only noticeable in seven of the indicators considered, including, for example, the proportion of skilled workers and experts among all employees.

However, the challenges of spatially balanced development remain considerable. Population development up to 2045 is expected to vary greatly from region to region: in structurally weak districts, the population is expected to decline by an average of 5.7% (in some cases by more than 10%). This will weaken the skilled labor base, the economic situation, and municipal budgets in regions that are already structurally weak today. This is another reason why the federal government is now initiating a follow-up process aimed at creating optimal conditions for equality in Germany.

We were also interested in the following topics:

• Training: First training, then studying? The Hans Böckler Foundation has researched the advantages of this path and what it means for starting a career.

• Health: Various factors in everyday working life can have a negative impact on the health of employees. The Institute for Employment Research is now compiling studies on this topic on a separate subpage.

• AI in the workplace: Automation can replace many things, but not everything. PartyParty has compiled a list of five tasks in political operations that are unlikely to be automated in the future.

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Are you interested in political consulting? Come to our CHECKPOINT Political Consulting event in Berlin on October 24! Here you will have the opportunity to get to know renowned consulting firms and gain an authentic insight into the industry. Further information can also be found at ckpt.org.

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