Scholz and the labor market: record employment despite increasing unemployment!

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz emphasized the high number of employment from 2024 in a current assessment of the government balance. According to Image , 46.1 million people in Germany were in work. Labor market expert Holger Schäfer explained that this job growth was recorded in particular in state-related areas, such as education, social affairs, health and administration.

Nevertheless, unemployment has increased by 168,000 since January 2024. The development in migration is also remarkable, since a total of 18,384 migrants were deported between January and November 2024. This represents an increase of 20% compared to the previous year and is the highest value since 2021. In contrast, in 2020 due to the corona pandemic, significantly fewer deportations were made.

Analysis of migration and asylum applications

Despite the high number of deportations carried out, fewer deportations were registered in 2024 than in the years of the grand coalition since the 2015 refugee crisis until the beginning of the pandemic. The employment situation for refugee Ukrainians shows a positive development: in July 2024, 266,000 Ukrainians were employed in Germany, which corresponds to an increase of 71,000 compared to the previous year. In the summer, these 266,000 employees were faced with more than 700,000 people who receive citizenship, including half a million people who are able to work.

The Ukrainians' employment rate in Germany is 25% in autumn, which is significantly behind compared to Poland and Great Britain, where this quota is over 60%. In addition, in 2024 there was a decline in asylum applications by 15% compared to 2022 and by 34% compared to 2023. Scholz spoke of a "turn in dealing with migration" for decades and underlined that fewer people were looking for asylum in Germany in the five years before taking office than in the three years of government by Olaf Scholz. Migration experts are skeptical and do not see a "scholz effect" because Germany benefits from developments in other countries. Germany remains the most important target country for asylum seekers within the EU and absorbs 24% of all migrants, while the population is 19%.

In the USA, Donald Trump meanwhile announced his plans for the greatest deportation in the history of the country, as Tagesschau . Trump wants to start with the deportation of criminal immigrants and has appointed Tom Homan, the former head of the US border protection authority ICE, as border protection officer. Homan confirmed that the plans for the mass deportations were already in full swing. It is estimated that between 11 and 12 million illegal immigrants live in the USA.

The plans describe the plans as shameful and illegal, while the American Immigration Council estimates the financial costs of the deportation of around one million people per year at over $ 88 billion. In addition, around 5% of US workers are eliminated on illegal immigrants who paid around $ 100 billion in taxes in 2022. Democratic politicians are demanding measures against Trump's deportation plans, while California and other states as well as cities have announced that they have announced the project. Trump’s plans for mass deportations fall into a significantly larger dimension compared to Barack Obama, who sloted around 3 million people during his term.