In Germany, employment has been affected by the 1990 unification of the country. An estimated three million jobs may have been lost as a result, mainly in the former East Germany.
There, a significant proportion of the workforce is unskilled, and the current unemployment level is approaching 19 per cent of the active population.
In Western Germany it is only 9.9 per cent. This has occurred despite the recent recovery of the German economy linked to the fall in value of the deutschmark.
There has also been a recent tendency among German employers to create jobs and invest money outside the country as a result of a perceived lack of worker flexibility and expensive non-wage labour costs.
These can be as high as 23 ECUs an hour, compared to labour costs of about six ECUs an hour in Portugal.
More significantly, labour costs are approximately 20 per cent higher than in France, the country's main competitor.
However, initiatives such as the reduction in working time at Volkswagen to 29 hours a week in 1993, which saved an estimated 30,000 posts, have helped.