CDU Minister of health, Jens Spahn, said: "Hartz IV does not mean poverty"

Let's see.

The latest Eurostat data (February 26, 2018) – Almost half the unemployed at risk of monetary poverty in the EU.

The performance of Germany is particularly interesting given it is held out as the ‘engine-room’ of the Eurozone. Overall, it has endured the second largest deterioration over the period (5.9 percentage points). Spain had the largest deterioration (6.6 percentage points).

While Germany was the 8th worst nation in the sample on this measure, it produced the largest shift in the indicator – from 4.8 per cent to 7.1 per cent of employed persons at risk of poverty. No doubt this is partly due to the rise of the Minijobs after the Hartz changes.

Finally, the next graph shows the ‘at risk’ data for those who were unemployed in 2005 and 2016. Germany stands out, with a massive 70.8 per cent of its unemployed ‘at risk of poverty’.

Full post at Bill Mitchell.

Poverty among the unemployed now close to 50 per cent in the EU