Labour force participation and hidden labour force of eastern German women

Abstract

"The economic collapse in eastern Germany caused a previously unprecedented unemployment in the new Federal states, which affected eastern German women overproportionally. Whereas in the times of the German Democratic Republic it was unproblematic for women to combine job and family, it could be assumed that the economic structural alignment with western German conditions would also lead to an alignment with the gender-specific role like in Western Germany. This article, with the aid of the data records of the labour market monitor and the Socioeconomic Panel, investigates the question as to whether in the five years since reunification, eastern German women have already resigned themselves to a retreat into the hidden labour force. An 'unbroken' high employment tendency among eastern German women was seen, in spite of the tense situation on the eastern German labour market and the closure of numerous company childcare facilities. Thus women have found additional childcare possibilities, for example within the family, and are still able to combine job and family. Children therefore do not seem to be an obstacle to the occupational activity of mothers in the new Federal states. The hidden female labour force in eastern Germany has proved to be a very dynamic group which continually seeks the proximity of the labour market. A good half of these women managed the transition into employment within two to three years; two years later the hidden labour force included less than 10% of the women who had been in the hidden labour form two years before. No change was apparent in the proportion of housewives, this was about 2% for the entire observation period. Even the employment tendency of women over 45 years of age, who were affected by unemployment to a high degree, did not diminish. Only women over 55 years of age, who were able to make use of the early retirement regulation, finally withdrew from the labour market." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Pfeiffer, B. (1996): Erwerbsbeteiligung und Stille Reserve ostdeutscher Frauen. In: Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Vol. 29, No. 1, p. 117-137.