Germany's chems, rubber still have 60,000 short-time workers

05 January 2010 17:33  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--Germany’s chemicals and rubber industries still had more than 60,000 workers on government-subsidised short-time work as of end September, the country’s chemicals employers group, BAVC, said on Tuesday.

In chemicals alone, 19,179 workers were on short-time work, down from a peak of more than 47,000 in April, BAVC said while commenting on the latest available data from the country’s federal labour office, the Bundesagentur fuer Arbeit.

The sharp decline from April was primarily due to Germany’s long summer vacation period during which the labour agency does not pay for short-time work, BAVC said.

In the rubber industry, there were 42,000 short-time workers as of September, BAVC added.

Overall, just over 1m German workers were on short-time work in September, compared with a peak of 1.5m in April, with the decline again primarily due to the summer vacation period.

Also, the agency was registering an increase in new applications for short-time work in November, compared with October, BAVC said.

Economists have warned that short-time work may mask the true extent of unemployment in Europe’s largest economy and have predicted more job cuts for this year.

As part of its support measures during the crisis, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government recently extended subsidised short-time work for one year.

For applications filed from 1 January, short-time work will be subsidised for 18 months. While this is down from 24 months for applications filed before 1 January under a previous programme that expired on 31 December, it compares with the normal six-month period under German labour laws.

BAVC also said that despite the government’s help, short-time work was by no means a free ride for employers.

Costs for employers, estimated at €5.0bn ($7.2bn) for 2009, arose because the labour agency did not pay workers during vacation times and holidays, among other factors.

Overall, Germany’s unemployment in 2009 averaged 3.4m, up by 155,000 from 2008, according to a separate news release by the labour agency.

The unemployment rate was 8.2%, up by 0.4 points from 2008, with western Germany registering 6.9% and eastern Germany recording 13.0%.

($1 = €0.69)

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