(de-news.net) – The president of the Federal Employment Agency, Andrea Nahles (SPD), has asserted that unemployed individuals currently face some of the weakest prospects for securing work in the agency’s recorded history. Media reports indicated that she characterized the labor market as having remained largely immobile for an extended period, with virtually no signs of recovery or renewed hiring dynamics. This stagnation, she argued, has produced a situation in which no segment of the workforce can reasonably assume lasting protection against job loss. Although highly skilled candidates still possess a comparatively stronger foothold in the competition for available positions, their relative advantage operates within an overall climate of declining opportunities. By contrast, the conditions confronting new entrants to the labor market were described as especially severe, reflecting both employers’ reluctance to expand staffing and the heightened vulnerability of individuals lacking professional experience.

In addition to assessing current labor market developments, Nahles — formerly chair of the SPD — expressed reservations about the proposed “placement priority” embedded in the forthcoming Bürgergeld reform. This policy framework stipulates that the placement of unemployed persons into immediate employment should generally take precedence over opportunities for training, reskilling, or professional development. Nahles argued that such an approach insufficiently accounts for the frequent mismatch between the skills held by job seekers and the competencies demanded by available vacancies. Without sustained investment in qualification measures, she warned, job seekers are at risk of cycling repeatedly through short-term employment relationships and returning to the job center within a matter of months. In her assessment, durable integration into the labor market cannot be achieved when individuals are funneled into roles for which they are only marginally prepared, underscoring the need for long-term capacity building rather than a narrow focus on rapid placement.