Mini-jobs in the distributive trade - popular but no real option for the unemployed

The mini-job plan of the German government has not assisted the re-integration into the labour market of unemployed persons and transfer recipients and has thus proved to be unsuitable for reducing unemployment. Also the new regulations that take effect on January 2005 (Hartz IV) do nothing to change the situation: An unemployed person who takes on a mini-job paying €450 is left with only €67.50, which is a transfer reduction rate of 85%. "This is not enough to induce people to take on work voluntarily," according to Ifo labour market expert Herbert Hofmann in a new study. In retailing and wholesaling, mini-jobs are primarily taken on by school pupils, students, women, second-job holders and pensioners. Since the introduction of the Hartz II-Reform in April 2004, the importance of low-paying jobs has increased in the distributive trade. However, this development cannot be seen as evidence for the often mentioned displacement of full and part-time jobs with full benefits. Reliable empirical studies are lacking that demonstrate that regular jobs have been transformed into mini-jobs in the same company. In particular there is no proof that full-time workers have been purposefully dismissed and replaced by low-hour workers. "In distribution an extensive substitution process is not to be expected", Hofmann summarizes his results. "For many years structural change in distribution in the direction of part-time employment and low-hour jobs has been taking place. In many companies there is a core staff of qualified, full employees and a peripheral staff: holders of mini-jobs." Fundamentally, mini-jobs have not changed this trend, but they facilitate the development in this direction. For the businesses they are a flexible instrument for cost savings and in this way safeguard jobs, even in difficult times