Over 190,000 Ukrainians employed in Germany – Labor Ministry

That’s according to a German Labor Ministry that gave a comment to Ukrinform.

"About 192,000 citizens of Ukraine are currently employed and pay social taxes. In addition, more than 48,000 people work part-time," the ministry reported.

The ministry also refuted the reports circulated by certain media that only less than 33,000 Ukrainians were employed against the expected 200,000.

"The given figure of about 33,000 people is based on inadequate representation of statistics in mass media. This is clearly not the full number of employed Ukrainians," the ministry claims.

As for the "plan", the goal of Job-Turbo, introduced last fall, was never to employ 200,000 Ukrainians. It was about the number of Ukrainians who have completed or will soon complete integration courses and acquired/will acquire basic knowledge of the German language, which is a precondition for employment.

The Ministry of Labor noted that now Job Centers reach out to refugees much more often after the latter complete integration courses. At the same time, the number of vacancies registered with the Federal Employment Agency has almost doubled this spring alone.

In March 2024, Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil and Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany Oleksiy Makeiev, in a joint letter informed all Ukrainians looking for jobs about the responsibilities and opportunities in the German labor market and urged them to get employed.

As Ukrinform was told by the Federal Employment Agency, as of April 2024, of the 855,415 citizens of Ukraine of working age living in Germany, almost two-thirds (541,927) are women. Also, 289,000 children and adolescents and 117,000 elderly people (65+ years) belong to the category of disabled.

It should be recalled that, after the start of the Russian war against Ukraine, more than 1.1 million Ukrainians were granted protection status in Germany. They, unlike other refugees, receive social assistance, which is equal to unemployment benefits for German citizens. Recently, some politicians have called for the cancellation of such payments to Ukrainians, claiming that the employment rate for Ukrainians in Germany is much lower than in other EU countries.