Looking East

Abstract

In Leipzig, as in the other East German communities, the training and labour market situation is unchangeably tight. At the start of the 1997 recruitment round for apprenticeships, the Leipzig labour administration in cooperation with the Leipziger Volkszeitung (the local newspaper) started a campaign to find additional training places. With the help of a ‘wanted’ poster school leavers presented themselves and their professional aspirations in the newspaper. Out of 300 school leavers who presented themselves in this way to the public, 35 found a training place. By spring 1997 the extent of the problem had become clear. According to statements of the labour administration in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt/Thuringia there were, at the end of May, 47 600 training places available for 116 300 applicants. Compared with the two other Bundeslander, Saxony had the lowest rate (34.2 per cent) of successful applications for training places. While the number of those searching for training places had risen by 3.8 per cent compared with the previous year the number of places had dropped by 9.4 per cent. Through the Federal—Lander training initiative¹ Saxony received additional financial support for 3416 training places.