German Joblessness Exceeds 11%

Amid fears that Germany may be heading for its second recession in three years, the government announced Wednesday that joblessness had surged past 11%, hitting a postwar record for the second consecutive month.

A total of 4.27 million people--the highest number since World War II--were without jobs in February, the Federal Labor Office said. Unemployment rose to 11.1% from 10.8% in January.

Economics Minister Guenter Rexrodt said the new figures are worse than he had expected and that it is “unbearable for society” to have so many people out of work.

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The Labor Office blamed the a stagnant economy and an unusually cold winter for the latest increase. The cold kept construction workers from their jobs.

“Germany stands on the precipice of a recession,” said Ernst Schwanhold, economics spokesman for the opposition Social Democrats.

Further gloomy news is expected today, when the government releases gross domestic product figures for the fourth quarter of 1995. The Economics Ministry indicated two weeks ago that the GDP probably shrank during that period, and it said then that prospects for growth in the first three months of 1996 were not bright.

Middle-aged former East Germans and women have had the hardest time finding and keeping jobs in the united country. Thousands lost their jobs when East German factories closed down, and older workers have found that age is a liability in finding new work.

The Federal Labor Office says eliminating some overtime could produce as many as 100,000 full-time jobs. Reducing overtime has been a key issue in recent talks among government, industry and unions.

Gert Hartmann, director of the east Berlin unemployment center, also noted that women account for more than half of Germany’s unemployed and that the situation is especially difficult for those with children.

Under communism, East German women had state-paid child care and found it easier to work than did West German women, who were often forced to work part-time or quit their jobs when they had children because of state policies such as having schoolchildren eat lunch at home.

Bernhard Jagoda, head of the Labor Office, said it’s too early to say when the situation will improve.

“It would be a catastrophe if the full year went as January and February did,” he said.

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The joblessness “reflects deep structural problems in Germany,” said Thomas Mayer, senior economic analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in Frankfurt. “German labor is . . . being priced out of the international market.”

The government has proposed a 50-point program that envisions cutting joblessness in half by the year 2000. But opposition politicians are balking at proposals to cut Germany’s generous social benefits system. Those reductions would result in savings for German companies.