European Economy. Economic Papers. Germany's growth performance in the 1990's

Table 3.15: Employees in East Germany (thousands)
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
All sectors
6438
5557
5377
5482
5583
5535
5443
5439
5454
5358
Agriculture, forestry, fishery
477
284
227
216
215
203
204
205
200
194
industry (excl. construction
1935
1258
1064
995
967
931
908
911
898
888
- manufacturing
1697
1082
919
868
853
828
814
823
814
813
Construction
661
741
838
940
992
954
903
832
780
709
Trade, restaurants, transport
1248
1129
1132
1153
1172
1182
1185
1205
1228
1214
Financial services, lease, business
services
366
402
431
465
494
516
531
563
593
608
Public and personal services
1751
1743
1685
1713
1743
1749
1712
1723
1755
1745
Services
3365
3274
3248
3331
3409
3447
3428
3491
3576
3567
Source: Statistisches Landesamt Baden-Württemberg
Opening clauses: According to the WSI works council survey 1999-2000 (as quoted in eiro-
online (2001)), 22% of establishments in Germany use some kind of flexibility clauses provided
in collective agreements. Most of these concern, however, working time (Table 3.16). The
popularity of opening clauses that led to pay reductions is significantly higher in the East, where
also breaches of collective agreements seem to occur more often.
Opting out: Coverage by collective wage agreements in East Germany is down to 46% of
workers, because firms are leaving the sectoral employers’ organisation or because new firms
especially small ones do not join. According to a ZEW survey (see Franz/Pfeiffer (2001)), 11%
of firms who had applied a collective agreement in 1998 had by early 2000 taken measures to
‘opt out’ of it. However, Kohaut/Schnabel (1999) point out that quite often, firms return to
applying a sectoral agreement some time after having left the employers’ organisation.