Reddit reviews Reich durch Hartz IV: Wie Abzocker und Profiteure den Staat plündern (German Edition)

> > People in non-productive measures that are certificably not increasing chance of getting a job, are not counted as unemployed

> That's standard definition of unemployed.

It is not, here. It's a huge business the government supports here. These opportunities are provided by third parties and delivered through the job center, and the criteria is that they have to not compete with anything the market could provide, so things among the following are offered: "Playing" Supermarket; Putting together old puzzles for giving away if they're not missing pieces; Walking through town; basic PC courses and other stuff along those lines, that doesn't provide a certificate. (edit: If you know german, maybe this book would provide some further insights there)

You're made to participate in those if you're unemployed and signed away your rights without demanding legal verification as to the validity of the document you're required to sign.

There's been official studies undertaken at this point that have shown that these measures don't increase employability.

Welcome to Germany.

edit: Also, I think in some places in the world, you don't count as unemployed if you've been looking for X months but found nothing so far. Though we don't do that here at least. Unless you're 50+ or something, then you are in fact dropped from the statistic after a period of time, here. It really is quite simple to drop people from the unemployment statistic, even if they say they look for work.