Germany’s job centres are increasingly failing to keep welfare recipients in long-term employment. According to a new analysis by the Federal Employment Agency (BA), less than half of all people placed in jobs by job centres in 2024 remained independent of state benefits after just three months.
In total, around 837,000 employable citizens were integrated into the labour market last year. Yet only 401,000 of them — or 47.9 percent — were considered “sustainably placed.”
In bureaucratic terms, “sustainable placement” means that a person does not return to Bürgergeld (Germany’s unemployment and social welfare benefit) within the first three months after taking up a job. Everyone else — including part-time “top-up” workers — counts as a failed placement.
More than half fall back into the system
The data paints a grim picture: around 436,000 people, or just over 52 percent, were back on state support within weeks of finding employment.
Many either lost their jobs or continued to receive partial benefits to supplement low wages.
Experts warn this trend signals a deeper structural issue — precarious employment and rising living costs are eroding the effectiveness of Germany’s social integration policies.
Sharp decline among young and older workers
The BA figures also show the trend worsening across all age groups.
In 2021, about 51.6 percent of those placed in jobs were still independent of benefits three months later. By 2024, the figure had dropped below 48 percent.
The situation is particularly alarming among the under-25s, where the success rate plunged from 56.6 percent in 2022 to just 46.3 percent in 2024.
Older job seekers (over 55) also struggled, with the share of those remaining employed without further assistance falling from 50.1 percent to 46.4 percent in the same period.
Families and foreign nationals most affected
Foreign nationals appear especially vulnerable to falling back into the welfare system.
Only 44.7 percent of non-German citizens managed to stay off Bürgergeld for at least three months — compared with 51.4 percent of German nationals.
Families with children and single parents face the steepest challenges: Only 32.3 percent of families**** managed to remain independent.
Among single parents, just 37.9 percent stayed off benefits long-term.
These figures underscore how unstable employment and childcare responsibilities continue to trap many households in recurring dependency.
Political reaction and growing pressure on job centres
The statistics were released following a parliamentary inquiry by René Springer, the AfD’s labour and social policy spokesman. He criticised the results as evidence of systemic failure:
“Every second welfare recipient ends up back in the system shortly after taking a job,” Springer said. “It’s a damning verdict on the performance of our job centres.”
He called for a review of job placement practices, demanding that future strategies focus on “sustainable integration” rather than short-term employment numbers.
Meanwhile, social policy experts across party lines agree that the job centres face mounting difficulties — not only due to labour market volatility, but also because rising rents, inflation, and low-wage employment make it increasingly difficult for workers to live without supplementary welfare support.
The bigger picture: a system under strain
Germany’s Bürgergeld, introduced in 2023 to replace Hartz IV, was intended to modernise welfare and reduce bureaucracy. But the new data suggests the reform has yet to achieve its main goal — helping people move from welfare to stable employment.
With the success rate of job placements falling year after year, policymakers now face a tough question: is the system broken, or is the problem much bigger than the job centres themselves?
