Germany's Minijob workers face shrinking path to stable employment
According to the figures, 102,084 workers in marginal part-time jobs—known as Minijobs—were placed in positions subject to social insurance contributions in 2017. Last year, however, only 50,831 had made the transition by September—a projected total of around 67,775 for the full year. The decline is equally stark for full-time positions: placements nearly halved, dropping from 33,953 to 16,315 cases (an estimated 21,753 when annualized).
The trend is also evident in the transition rate: in 2017, 27.1 percent of Minijob workers receiving supplementary welfare benefits moved into regular employment (102,084 out of an annual average of 376,292). By 2025 (through September), that figure had fallen to just 18.6 percent (50,831 out of 273,911).
Hülya Düber, a CSU member of the Bundestag and social policy expert, told Bild: "When fewer people are moving from basic income support into regular jobs, it shows that the incentives in the system still aren't right." She added: "All too often, work simply doesn't pay." The goal, she argued, must be to "ensure that work pays off in a tangible way and that the step into regular employment becomes more attractive."
Jan Feser, the AfD Bundestag member who had requested the data, told the same newspaper that the Federal Employment Agency was "largely just managing unemployment rather than effectively ending it." He criticized that Minijobs had "too often become a long-term arrangement prone to abuse, rather than serving as a bridge to genuine employment."
The Federal Employment Agency rejected the criticism, citing the weak labor market conditions.
