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1. 哈尔茨改革的目标
Gerhard Schroeders 2010议程已经改变了这个共和国:通过哈尔茨四号方案失业救济被废除，临时工作和小型工作被自由化，并且“Sozial?mter”和“Arbeitsagenturen ”汇集在了一起。到目前为止，德国人仍然在为改革而奋斗，我们可以想象到失业者的未来。
对哈尔茨四号方案改革的讨论是一个热门的话题,在2011年也是如此。关于增加基本津贴的谈判正在进行，准备工作也开始接受审定。几乎没有一天人们不打开收音机、电视或打开报纸，听到、看到或读到的至少一个关于ALG II的讨论。哈尔茨四号方案已成为一个社会、政治激烈交流观点的焦点。政治相关人士范德莱恩女士必须处理这个问题,但哈尔茨四号方案新顶级会议的几天前，社民党和奥地利绿党威胁说要中断谈话。社民党 “明镜在线”负责人Sigmar Gabriel表示“如果基民盟和自民党不努力,谈判可能会失败”。
1.The Goals Of The Hartz Reforms Economics Essay
Gerhard Schroeders Agenda 2010 has changed the Republic: Through Hartz IV unemployment benefits were abolished, temporary work and mini-jobs were liberalized and “Sozial?mter” were pooled together with the “Arbeitsagenturen”. To this date, the Germans fight about the reform - and what you can expect of the unemployed.
Debates on the Hartz IV reforms are one of the hot topics, also in year 2011. Negotiations concerning an increase in the basic allowances take place, arrangements are being reviewed. Almost no day goes by where you do not turn on the radio or television or open the newspaper, and hear, see or read at least one discussion on ALG II. Hartz IV has become a social, political and social focal point for heated exchanges of views. The politics around Mrs. von der Leyen has to deal with the issue, but a few days before the new top-level meeting to Hartz IV SPD and die Grünen threatened to break off conversations. ‘If the CDU and FDP do not make an effort, the negotiations could fail,’ said Sigmar Gabriel, head of the SPD to "Spiegel Online".
Politics is in dispute and unhappy about the employment situation. There are many dissenting votes on all questions and opinions. It is not easy to agree when it comes to potential improvements. The unemployment numbers do not decrease as expected, which also regurgitates the unemployment benefit recipients. The discontent with the system of welfare state bureaucracy is large. Disappointed, are unemployed, who still see no chance even after dozens of applications. But disappointed are also many who work and still do not have more money than if they would not work.
‘The Hartz IV reform has missed its main goal,’ the CDU economy politician Kurt Lauk says: ‘Hartz IV has become a political aside premium of the labor market.’
But what are the objectives of the unemployment benefit reform?
With this work I will primarily focus on this raised question. The various goals will be discussed. Information about how far they have been achieved will be given.
To start with for a more profound understanding a brief history of the Hartz reforms will be supplied. Going on the four main incentives will be described and analyzed, to then give a conclusion on the Hartz IV reforms and their situation.
2 History of Hartz IV
In 2002, on the 22nd of February, the Committee for Modern Services in the Labor Market was employed by the Federal Government of Germany, which is better known as the Hartz Committee, named after the head of commission Peter Hartz.
Proposals to improve the efficiency of the labor market policy and suggestions to reform the Federal Labor Office were required due to the persistently high unemployment in Germany. The committee formulated thirteen “innovation modules”; a set of recommendations; that were eventually put into practice by January 1st in 2005.
2. 1 The Phases I –III
The “Hartz-Paket”, as it was called in the German media, contains a bunch of different measures. For better implementation of the governmental process, the actions were divided into separate legislations to reform the labor market (“Gesetze zur Reform des Arbeitsmarktes”) with the abbreviations Hartz I, Hartz II, Hartz III and Hartz IV; the individual laws came gradually into force between 2003 and 2005.
Hartz I, with effect from 1. January 2003:
First Act for Modern Services on the Labor Market
facilitation of new forms of work
promotion of professional education by the Federal Employment Agency (FbW), introduction of education vouchers
allowance by the Federal Institute
temporary work in corporation with Personnel Service Agencies (PSA)
Hartz II with effect from 1. January 2003
Second Act for Modern Services on the Labor Market
The law contains provisions that were partially put into practice later.
regulation of the employment categories of smaller employment (mini-jobs and midi jobs) with effect from 1. April 2003
“Ich- AG”
establishment of job centers
Hartz III, with effect from 1. January 2004
Third Act for Modern Services on the Labor Market
restructuring and rebuilding of the Federal Employment Office (“Arbeitsamt”) into the Federal Employment Agency (“Agentur für Arbeit”)
2.2 Phase IV: Hartz IV
The fourth and last phase came into operation on the 1. January of 2005. The principal adjustment of this phase was the merging of the former unemployment benefits for long term unemployed (“Arbeitslosenhilfe”) and the welfare benefits (“Sozialhilfe”). The fusion of these social benefits was to serve as an avoidance of administration efforts and to aid to create transparency in unemployment statistics, as well as to improve coordination and accountability. Hence ALGII is a fixed rate of benefits. After one year of receiving ALGI, which is coupled with the former payment, one falls into the category of Hartz IV. The current benefit lies at 359€ per month (for a single person) excluding the cost of adequate housing and is not linked to the former remuneration. Additional benefits can be filed for, but only initial equipment is provided, as to strengthen the individual responsibility for clothing, furniture or the like. Assistance is rendered in the field of job placing and job application training. On the other hand; sanction possibilities in form of cuttings of benefits shall to secure the cooperation willingness. This principle of conveyance and demanding is supposed to be the temporarily assurance of the socio-economic subsistence level.
3 Goals of the Hartz Reform
The goal of the master plan was to reduce the number of unemployed from four million to two million within three years, to upgrade the support and supervision by the employees of the Federal Employment Office and to shorten the unemployment duration from 33 to 22 weeks, and thereby to save 19.6 billion Euros.
Summarized, four main aims were/are targeted:
- decrease of unemployment
- improvement of mentoring
- reduction of unemployment duration
- cutback welfare costs
3.1 Decrease of Unemployment
Now, six years after the implementation of the Hartz reforms studies have different opinions on the efficiency of the various adjustments.
Politics and the IAB allege that the impact on the situation of unemployment is generally rated as positive. As the diagram 1 below shows the number of unemployed people dropped significantly since 2005. Only during 2009 a rise can be witnessed. The global economic crisis resulted in an overall lack of demand, like economies can and often do suffer from. The majority of markets was affected, and had to deal with a loss in production and demand.
Diagram 1: Unemployed in Germany distinguished between sexes – time series of annual mean values of 1991 - 2009
Source: http://statistik.arbeitsagentur.de/Navigation/Statistik/Statistik-nach-Themen/Arbeitsmarkt/ Arbeitsmarkt-Nav.html (13.01.2011); own illustration
Contrariwise, when looking at the statistics considering the recipients of ALGII only, one can see that not a lot has changed during the time period of more than five years.
Diagram 2: People receiving ALGII distinguished between sexes – time series of annual mean values of 2005 – 2009
Source: http://statistik.arbeitsagentur.de/Navigation/Statistik/Statistik-nach-Themen/Grundsicherung-Arbeitsuchende-SGBII/Grundsicherung-Arbeitsuchende-SGBII-Nav.html (26.01.2011); own illustration#p#分页标题#e#
As Hans J?rg Duppré from the German County Association poses is the promising message of the regressive number of unemployed people an illusion. The amount of Hartz IV recipients has reached its absolute peak in April 2010 at 7.4 Mio people.
Boss, Christensen and Schrader understand the problem in the insufficient incentives for Hartz IV recipients to take up employment. Labor is only appealing when the acceptance of employment promises an adequate growth in remuneration. The essential motivation is missing because the gap between the achievable net wage and the entitlement to ALGII benefits is too less.
Based on the consumption-leisure trade-off with a limited amount of time that the individual can allocate to work and leisure, with the individual choosing the optimal labor supply that maximizes utility, this is known as voluntary unemployment. “Individuals provide labor to firms that wish to employ them, by balancing the gains from offering the marginal unit of their services (the wage they would receive) with the disutility of labor itself (the loss of leisure).” They make their choices at the margin, and when unsatisfied with the outcome (income and leisure), they preferably decide to reject the job. A fall in wages will not increase labor demand and improve economic growth, but rather will lead to a fall in consumption, aggregate demand, employment and output.
3.2 Improvement of Mentoring
More intensive counseling could prevent these abuses. Improved job opportunities, tailored to the job seekers could reduce the percentage of rejections.
The staff of the newly created local SGB II public agency does not just function as placement officers anymore, but rather as personal contacts, which are designed to provide comprehensive advice and support. The goal is always to activate the unemployed. Besides the motivation for independent job search, support for education and training and the gradual (re) integration of all capable to work into the labor market, are tasks of the personal contact. With that in SGB II embodied concept of "conveyance and demanding" the integration is to be succeeded.
As diagram 3 shows, in principle, almost always a profile are created and a is held. This displays an intensive counseling strategy that should result in success.
Diagram 3: Percentages of Profiles of strengths and weaknesses created and discussions on the labor market opportunities held according to different groups of people
Source: Tisch Anita: Arbeitsvermittler im Urteil der ALG-II-Empf?nger In IAB-Kurzbericht 07/2010, W. Bertelsmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Bielefeld 2010; own illustration
As a study by the IAB also illustrates, the staff are always described as friendly and trustworthy. However, many job seekers assess their chances in the labor market still negative; even intensive counseling can hardly improve this.
Diagram 4: Evaluation of Support in percent
Source: Tisch Anita: Arbeitsvermittler im Urteil der ALG-II-Empf?nger In IAB-Kurzbericht 07/2010, W. Bertelsmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Bielefeld 2010; own illustration
The Diagram 4 shows some differences, which can be summarized as follows:
- Young SGB II customers under 25 years confront their advisers rather skeptical, but trust in good placement opportunities.
- Older ALG II recipients over 50 years have a friendly contact with their advisers, but are less convinced of the success of efforts.
- ALG II recipients with an immigrant background evaluate the advice of SGB II carriers consistently positive than those without a migration background.
- Also participants in measures to promote employment opportunities rate the advice and care better than ALG II recipients who participate in no activity.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the work of the employees of the Federal Employment Office is actually perceived as a service by ALG II recipients. The real goal of labor market integration is though not always achieved in the desired extent from the perspective of people in need.
3.3 Reduction of Unemployment Duration
Many unemployed workers, who despite the advice and support are to be long-term unemployed fairly fast. Weeks over months pass by and the parties concerned cannot find a suitable job. The reduction of the unemployment period was set by the federal government as the target of the Hartz reform.
The SPD explains the agenda for 2010 slightly ineffective: Officially, the number of long-term unemployed decreases. In fact, they often have no job, but drop out of the statistics.
It looks like a success. The official number of long-term unemployment is falling rapidly. In 2006 there were 1,676 million long-term unemployed, in October 2008, there were 995.000, as the latest employment report identifies. Also striking; the number of long-term unemployed is now taking off even faster than overall unemployment - although long-term unemployed are considered particularly difficult to place.
The Federal Employment Agency considers its own data with skepticism. ‘On the numbers on the long-term unemployed one cannot really rely on.’
Because the definition is only seemingly clear. A long-term unemployed is anyone who has not have a job for more than 12 months of at least 15 hours per week. But then it gets complicated. If the unemployment is interrupted for more than six weeks, the counting will start again from zero.
An example: A Hartz IV recipients is 24 months without a job, so long-term unemployed. Then he gets an 1-Euro-Job for three months. Afterwards, he is unemployed again - but not long-term unemployed anymore. The same applies to training and qualification programs and for diseases that take longer than six weeks.
Leaving aside the potential difficulties of the analysis of figures, some statistics which I have found, confirm the fixed development of the duration of unemployment. The first chart shows that the proportion of long-term unemployment of 22.8 has even increased to 23.1. No real improvement is demonstrated by the second diagram either, which shows the average weeks of unemployment. Here, although a decrease is visible, it is not an efficient one.
Diagram 5: Development of the average duration of unemployment starting 1998
Source : Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) : Analytikreport der Statistik 04/2008 ; own illustration
3.4 Cutback Welfare Costs
With the sustained period of unemployment of those concerned, of course, the costs increase for the taxpayers. Although in the beginning to reduce welfare costs was one of the intended targets. But quickly this has been rejected. The costs of financing Hartz IV have been underestimated by far. The plan was that through the cut of social costs the costs for the welfare state would shrink in total. However, the opposite occurred; the social expenditure has not decreased, but by the unclear legislation and the subsequent actions has more than doubled. In 2005, they rose from an expected 14.6 billion to actual 25.6 billion Euro, in 2006 the expectation was aligned to 24.6 billion but still too low for the spent 26.4 billion.
In 2008 the costs were then already at 38.5 billion Euros and in 2010 the federal government and the municipalities had an output of three billion Euros more than the year before for the Hartz IV recipients. The cost lied at 49 billion Euros.
As it can be seen from these figures there has also not been an improvement. The cost for the concept Hartz IV were underestimated and instead of lowering costs, one now ended up with expenditure of unimaginable proportions.
4 Conclusion
Hartz IV has become a topic for debating in society. Discussed in politics, in Internet forums, at Monday demonstrations, in books, or even between the parties themselves.
The main objective of reducing unemployment was not reached in compliance with the wishes. Indeed, results are seen but only very small ones. Considering the effort and struggle to improve the system, it must be said, unfortunately, that they have not turned out well to the success of those affected.
The Hartz concept has created a veritable Hartz IV industry. Of the above named 49 billion Euros which were spent on Hartz IV, only 24 billion Euros flew directly to the ALG II recipients. The rest flew into the industry, which is better off the more people rely on public assistance. Around the Federal Employment Offices with their good service and support, training providers, private employment agencies, lawyers and welfare groups have settled. But also they did not increase the employment. Training providers just keep the ALG II recipients busy, with puzzling or other useless activities. Private employment agencies give the unemployed work for weeks for option money to then throw them back to the welfare system. Lawyers try to earn money with the dozen trials, which in fact only increases the costs for welfare than somehow help the people affected.#p#分页标题#e#
Also the debates to increase the rates will not change the labor market situation in Germany. When it comes to Ursula von der Leyen, the children of ALG II families should soon be entitled to new, state-funded educational and recreational activities. The Hartz IV reforms, which will be discussed in the coming days and weeks of the mediation committee of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, requires about 1,300 additional employees in the job centers. Thus provides the Hartz IV industry with new employees, but unfortunately actually not for those at issue.
The concept, which was produced by the Hartz Commission, has shown important objectives. Approaches have been made. The implementation though shows mistakes and therefore, the success holds off. How it will go on with Hartz IV, one cannot predict exactly. The meetings around Mrs. von der Leyen are expected to bring improvements. One tries to deal intensively with the topic. The concept Hartz IV will therefore remain, but hopefully not with the built-in errors and the possible abuses by people who are not helping but impair.
Literature List
I. Books (also codes), Newspapers and Magazines
BGBl. I 2002
Boss Alfred, Christensen Bj?rn, Schrader Klauss: Die Hartz IV-Falle: Wenn Arbeit nicht mehr lohnt In: Kieler Diskussionsbeitr?ge (Vol. 474/475), 03/2010; ideas used: page 3ff.
Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) : Analytikreport der Statistik 04/2008
Kleinhubbert Guido &Neubacher Alexander: Die Hartz-Fabrik In: Der Spiegel (Vol. 1), 01/2011; ideas used: page 16ff.
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