So far, almost 33,000 Ukrainian refugees have entered the German labor market through the Federal Ministry of Labor’s so-called Job Turbo. As the “Passauer Neue Presse” reported on Tuesday, citing information from the Federal Employment Agency, between November last year and the end of May this year “32,794 people from Ukraine ended their unemployment as part of the Job Turbo” and began employment or training. That is less than the government had targeted at the time.
Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) launched the support program in the fall. It is aimed at refugees with prospects of staying in the country who should be brought into work more quickly – according to the government at the time, around 400,000 people who had completed integration and language courses were to be placed on the job market, around 200,000 of them from Ukraine. The main aim is to provide more support from the job centers.
According to the Federal Employment Agency, as of March this year, 529,201 of the 1.17 million Ukrainian refugees living here are currently able to work, the newspaper further reported. The employment rate is 26.5 percent, including marginally employed people.
According to the employment agency, 90,766 people from the group of refugees from other countries of origin such as Afghanistan, Syria or Eritrea were able to be integrated into the labor market between November and May. Heil took stock of the Job Turbo in April and explained that there were around 225,000 additional counseling sessions in the job centers during the period under review compared to the previous year.
In order to create incentives for people to take up work, there is a discussion about whether refugees from Ukraine should be supported in the future through the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act. Politicians from the FDP, CDU and BSW spoke out in favor of abolishing the citizen’s allowance, and a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Labor said on Tuesday that the coalition would stick to the existing rules.