Strong job growth in Germany, until Paul Krugman hits home with a tweet.

The German papers and websites were full of good news about the strong German labor market. Like the FAZ:

High employmentGermany's labor market bursting with strength

Never since the reunion did so many people in Germany have work like now. This is shown by the figures for the year 2016.

January 2, 2017

Germany is known for its strong manufacturing industry, so one should assume that sector is showing continued strong employment numbers. Alas, Paul Krugman spoils the party with this graph in his tweet.

You could argue that the graph is discontinud at 2012 or so, but here is a graph to 2015 and remember, in 2016 Germany hit another record in its export surplus (which of course leads to an investment deficit at a balanced fiscal budget, the well-known Schäuble Black Zero).

The FAZ puts this in a rather benign light:

New jobs were created in Germany mainly in the service sector (plus 426,000). In the industry without construction, the number of employed persons stagnated in the past year, on the other hand, stagnated at the level of the year 2015, according to the federal statisticians. In the construction sector, the number of employed persons increased by an average of 20,000 persons or a conversion of 0.8 per cent.

One can safely assume, those lost manufacturing jobs have been substituted by low-wage service jobs and temp jobs. The poverty rate of just below 16% points to that. An ideal climate for the AfD, the German Trumpinators.