Regional disparities in the labour market in East Germany

In February 2003 the unemployment in Germany reached the third highest peak since unification with more than 4.7 million unemployed persons. The number of unemployed persons in Germany increased from February 2002 to February 2003 by over 410,000 (+9.5%), which accounts for an increase of the unemployment rate from 10.4% in February 2002 to 11.3% in February 2003. The numbers for East Germany are even more alarming. The average unemployment rate in East Germany increased from 18.8% in February 2002 to 19.9% in February 2003. That means that nearly 1.76 million persons were unemployed in East Germany in February 2003 and over 93,000 more (+5.6%) than in the previous year were looking for a job. On the other hand the number of available jobs decreased by 28% in East Germany between 2002 and 2003. This drastic aggregated increase of unemployment in East Germany is the starting point for this research. It will focus on the differences in the spatial structure of employment in East Germany. The research will show that not all Landkreise (municipalities) in East Germany follow the overall negative trend. The questions, which regions and industries were actually able to increase employment against the overall trend and why they did so, will be analysed