The daily newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" released an evaluation of federal employment statistics on Thursday, claiming that fewer German children are living below the poverty line, but not all parts of the country are enjoying the same levels of success. According to the report, the number of children younger than 15 years old receiving funds from the state welfare program Hartz IV decreased from 1.9 million to 1.64 million between September 2006 and September 2011. The decline between 2010 and 2011 stood out, as the number of children in Hartz IV households shrank by nearly 84,000.
The daily newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" released an evaluation of federal employment statistics on Thursday, claiming that fewer German children are living below the poverty line, but not all parts of the country are enjoying the same levels of success.
According to the report, the number of children younger than 15 years old receiving funds from the state welfare program Hartz IV decreased from 1.9 million to 1.64 million between September 2006 and September 2011.
The decline between 2010 and 2011 stood out, as the number of children in Hartz IV households shrank by nearly 84,000.
There were 11.5 million children under 15 in 2006, and 10.75 million in 2011. That's about 6.5% less. And then the study is not about children who live in poverty as the headline suggests. It is about children receiving Hartz4, as opposed to children in poverty who receive Sozialgeld (tied to the inability to work), or who have a low income as low as Hartz4. (More here, but in German)
However, job growth in Germany has been mainly in the precarious sector. Around one half of all employment contracts today are limited term, and "temp" work is accounting for an ever greater proportion of jobs.
Watch this figure to do a 180 in a New York minute the next time the domestic economy starts stagnating. The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
