Coping with unemployment: mini-jobs in Germany

Since 2002, Germany has been involved in an extensive labour market reform. The reducing long-term unemployment and developing low-skilled labour was one of the main elements of new employment policy. That is why so-called Minijobs which consist of part-time work with reduced social coverage have gradually come to occupy a central place in German low-wage job development strategy. The article presents the historical background of minijobs' expansion in Germany, describes precisely recent reforms and analyses the effectiveness of presented new labour market instruments.