The development of the East German labour market in the present economic cyclical upturn
The strong economic upturn has also reached the East German labour market. Thus the number of the employed persons increased in East Germany for the second year and underemployment clearly decreased. In this paper some aspects of the development in the East German labour market in the present economic upturn are investigated more thoroughly. Developments in East Germany are compared with those in the preceding upturn, on the one hand, and with developments in West Germany, on the other. In a first we investigate to what extent the East German labour market has improved in the present upturn. This is done using the indicators number of employed persons, total hours worked, andthe number of the underemployed. Afterwards it is examined how employment has developed for specific groups , as for example employees subject to social insurance and self-employed persons. Then it is indicated to what extent the number of jobs available for people in working age has improved in the present economic upturn. Finally it is shown that in spite of the increase in available jobs the employment gap is still high.
