The gun smoke of the political debate about the citizens' income that came into force on January 1 has disappeared.
At the Aruso job center, the Hartz IV successor means more work and beneficiaries of the district authority and employment agency, but also better opportunities for this group of people.
Erding - Overall, Aruso considers the job market to be stable.
Managing Director Monja Rohwer, a woman from the very beginning at the job center, dares to make this prediction.
But there is one development that worries her.
"The challenges of all those involved in the labor market have grown," explains Rohwer in a statement.
Demographic change and digitization have “particularly” had an impact on securing skilled workers.
In addition, there are the effects of the corona pandemic and the Ukraine war and, last but not least, the “increasingly necessary adaptations to climate change”.
Rohwers is convinced that the skilled workers provided by the job center contribute to "stabilizing the social security systems", i.e. health and pension funds, for example.
The new citizens' allowance with higher rates as the successor to Hartz IV means a paradigm shift for the labor market.
"When it comes to consulting, this requires new strategies," says Rohwer.
However, the head of the job center is convinced that "the new incentives such as the training allowance and the increased allowances for earned income will increase the motivation for a qualification or for taking up work".
In its annual report, Rohwer paints a positive picture of the labor market.
The pandemic is obviously not leaving any long-term damage here: "The total number of unemployed in the Erding district fell in 2022 compared to the previous year." The rates were below those of the second year of the pandemic - in September, for example, at 2.1 percent, 0.3 points below the from September 2021.
With a view to the year that has just begun, she attests that the labor market is in a “very robust” state.
He was also "further receptive" - keyword: (skilled) labor shortage.
The strongest sectors in the region are health and social services, the construction industry, sales/trade as well as warehousing/logistics and transport.
In the area of the Social Code II (formerly Hartz IV), the Erdinger job center is doing well with an unemployment rate of only 0.6 to 0.7.
"However, since June 2022 we have seen an increase here due to the admission of Ukrainian refugees." Rohwer put the integration rate among Aruso's clientele at 35 percent in the past year.
This year she calculates with 34.3 percent.
That means: Every third party can be mediated.
And: In the region, she does not expect any increase in long-term unemployment.
In 2020, in the first year of the pandemic, Aruso had 1,705 employable beneficiaries, an increase of 9.5 percent compared to the time before Corona.
In 2021 the increase was eight percent (1840).
In 2022, however, their number fell by 5.3 percent to 1,743.
For this year, Rohwer expects an increase of 11.9 percent to 1,952 beneficiaries.
However, she attributes this to the arrival of refugees from the Ukraine and the consequences of the new basic income – and not to a labor market that is weakening due to inflation and recession.
She is particularly concerned about her own authority and its equipment.
Aruso will have almost 4.5 million euros available this year, 4.65 percent less than in 2022. Although the job center will receive 1.71 percent more money for administrative costs (€2.7 million), the integration budget will fall by 13 percent (€1.77 million).
Rohwer had already announced at the advisory board meeting in November that it might not be possible to offer all programs or that ongoing measures would have to be ended earlier.
ham