Germany's Labour Market - Is an Agenda 2010 Reform Needed in Germany?

On 14 March 2003 the then-German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder released a government statement announcing Agenda 2010 as a reaction to the difficult situation in the labour market and incipient demographic change. Since then the Agenda has been praised by many, but the policy and its implications have also drawn criticism. The Agenda created controversy among economists from the outset. In the July issue of their panel, the ifo Institute and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung seized on current correction proposals to Agenda 2010 as an opportunity to gauge German economists' current opinion of the Agenda. Overall, German economists see Agenda 2010 as a major success story for the German labour market and are sceptical about plans to make fundamental changes to it. They do, however, see considerable scope for marginal adjustments and/or corrections to individual aspects of the policy, and for adapting the Agenda to current circumstances and previous experiences.