_ Dr. Ulrich van Suntum, honorary professor, University of Münster, former Secretary-General, German Expert Council for the Assessment of Overall Economic Development (SVR). 12. May 2024.*
Germany is on the wrong track: More and more citizens are toying with the idea of reducing working hours. What we need right now, however, is the exact opposite: to roll up our sleeves.
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The DGB’s slogan for May 1st, “More pay, more leisure, more security!”, was in tune with the spirit of the times. Germans are increasingly reluctant to work. This is suggested by surveys, as reported by the Institute of the German Economy (IW-Kurzbericht 24/24). [1] According to this, the desired working hours of employed persons are, on average, three hours lower than 15 years ago, and this applies across all age groups. [2] So it is not just the younger “Generation Z” that thinks this way, but also older people, both men and women.
And this is by no means due to a saturation of consumer desires, as the Cologne economists write. For it is precisely the low-skilled workers in the lower wage groups who have the least desire to work, those who are not exactly swimming in material wealth. Moreover, the majority of them state that they work primarily for the money. Job satisfaction or the ambition to achieve something seem to play only a subordinate role.
Working hours of Germans are already below the EU average
In this context, it is of course pleasant to hear trade unions demanding higher wages for shorter working hours. Or rather, even shorter working hours, one should say. After all, the average working time per employee in Germany, at 1,341 hours per year, is already lower than in any other country. For comparison: In the EU countries on average, it is 1,571 hours, and in the USA even 1,811 hours per year. To be fair, it must be added that there are many part-time workers in Germany. This depresses the average, although the high female employment rate behind it is actually positive for the labor market. Nevertheless, the Germans’ ever-decreasing willingness to work is a problem.
Because even now, companies are having great difficulty finding enough qualified workers. Even for simple jobs in the catering and retail sectors, people are being sought everywhere, but often in vain. And the future also looks bleak, as the potential pool of people of working age continues to shrink. In the public service alone, 30 percent of employees will retire in the coming years, as even the deputy DGB chairwoman Elke Hannack (CDU) said in her May speech. It did not seem to occur to her that there is an obvious tension with further reductions in working hours.
Immigration will not solve the problem
And how are we supposed to solve the mammoth tasks that have piled up in the infrastructure under these circumstances? Not only do roads, bridges, and buildings need to be fundamentally renovated, but politics also wants to convert everything to renewable energies. According to the “Progress Monitor Energy Transition 2024”, investments of 1.2 trillion euros are required for this alone by 2035. [3] This requires not only capital but also a lot of work that someone has to do.
According to previous experience, further immigration can hardly be the solution. After all, doctors and engineers have tended to avoid Germany in the past. [4] Even if they came, they would of course have to be paid. But where is the money supposed to come from to pay the Germans, who strive for sun and leisure, higher wages for less work? The DGB is spreading an unrealistic fool’s paradise economy. In reality, we will have to roll up our sleeves.
Notes
[1] Grömling M. (2024). IW-Konjunkturumfrage Frühjahr 2024. Unternehmen sehen keine Erholung in 2024. IW Köln. URL: https://www.iwkoeln.de/studien/michael-groemling-unternehmen-sehen-keine-erholung-in-2024.html
[2] Klauß U. (2024). Von der 40-Stunden-Arbeitswoche. Junge Freigheit. URL: https://jungefreiheit.de/kultur/medien/2024/von-der-40-stunden-arbeitswoche/
[3] BDEW (2024). Fortschrittsmonitor Energiewende 2024. URL: https://www.bdew.de/energie/fortschrittsmonitor-energiewende-2024/
[4] Junge Freiheit (2024). Aus der Fachkräfte-Einwanderung wird ein Hilfskräfte-Import. URL: https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2024/aus-der-fachkraefte-einwanderung-wird-ein-hilfskraefte-import/
* Original publication in the German newspaper “Junge Freiheit”.