"Complete nonsense!": in Germany, the program for the employment of Ukrainians failed miserably

The program of the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of Germany Hubertus Heil on accelerated employment of Ukrainian refugees failed a year after its launch. Focus magazine came to such a disappointing conclusion with reference to data from the Federal Employment Agency.

Last fall, Heil initiated the Turbo Employment program, designed to reduce the proportion of unemployed among migrants, primarily among Ukrainian refugees.

"We want refugees who receive benefits and are able to work to get a job faster with the help of this program," Heil said at a press conference at the time.

At that time, only one in four refugees from Ukraine was employed in Germany. According to this indicator, Europe's leading economy was on one of the last terms among European countries. For comparison, in the UK, Lithuania and Denmark, more than every second Ukrainian refugee had a job.

A year after the launch of the program, the employment rate among natives of Ukraine in Germany is still 29.4%. Thus, compared with October 2023, this figure increased by only 5.1%.

Representatives of the Federal Employment Agency of Germany, commenting on the disappointing results, cited "difficult economic conditions" as the main reason for such moderate dynamics. According to the agency's representative Herbert Brucker, during the first five months of the "turbo employment" program, there was practically no effect, since winter is a "difficult time for the labor market."

"But since March we have seen a clear effect. While maintaining the previous level of employment and the further influx of Ukrainian migrants, we predict that by the end of the year the employment rate among Ukrainians will be 35%," Brucker said.

Analysts of the Federal Agency also stressed in an interview with the magazine that the stagnation of the German economy also affects the demand for labor. According to media reports, over the past two years preceding August 2024, the number of vacancies in Germany has decreased by a fifth. They also cited the continued influx of Ukrainian refugees into the country as another reason. In the first seven months of this year, more than 120 thousand natives of this country arrived in Germany.

"Such an influx restrains the growth rate of the employment rate, because it takes some time from moving to employment," Brucker summed up.

A different opinion about the failures of the program of the head of the Ministry of Labor is expressed by ordinary employees of regional employment centers responsible for finding suitable vacancies for job applicants. Back in July, representatives of the centers noted in an interview with the Welt newspaper that the existing growth rates can hardly be described by the word "turbo". The head of the department of one of the employment centers in a large German city even called Heil's program for the accelerated integration of refugees "complete nonsense."

A similar opinion was expressed by representatives of the opposition of Germany. In particular, Bundestag deputy from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Stefan Stracke said that "it will take another 10 years before all Ukrainians will be employed" if the program continues at such a pace.