Bogus German Unemployment Numbers: Program Masks Joblessness

The New York Times reports:

Economists estimate that the government-subsidized program of short working hours — known as Kurzarbeit — has helped avert roughly 400,000 layoffs so far, with 1.3 million to 1.4 million people in the short-time program, according to government estimates. But with the economy expected to shrink by at least 6 percent this year, experts say that stopgap measure will give way at last to a far bigger wave of layoffs this fall, after the election.

Metin Marul was let go from his assembly-line job at a Mercedes supplier near Stuttgart in May. He still has not found a new position to replace the one he lost. Yet according to the government, he is not unemployed.

Mr. Marul, 42, is one of about 60 employees from the closed factory who ended up instead on the rolls of what is known in Germany as a transfer company. At an office in Reutlingen run by the company MyPegasus, Mr. Marul, a Turkish-born immigrant, works on his résumé, talks to an adviser about how to look for work and can take courses to advance his technical skills or improve his non-native German.

A "transfer" economy sure makes those unemployment numbers look better than they really are.