An email from a reader alerted me to this story from The Telegraph about Germany’s radical answer to its unemployment problem:
. . . There is special focus on “mini-jobs”, contracts that allow a worker to earn 400 euros a month tax-free on the condition that they can be sacked at any moment. Germans can have as many such jobs as they like, but only one with the same employer. The official figures show that, within a year of their introduction, there were 500,000 more part-time jobs, with a good record of leading to full-time employment. Youth unemployment was indeed halved. None of this was pain-free – protesters lined the streets, complaining about deregulation and denouncing “devil jobs”. It was, for Schröder, a battle worth fighting and winning. . .
Could we be as brave as Germany?
There would be a battle, but if it worked as it did there, it would be one worth fighting and winning here.
