Only 3 percent of Germans want new job

27 April 2004

BERLIN – Only 3 percent of employed Germans were looking for new jobs and a rise in adult obesity was noted in a micro-census conducted in 2003, the government announced Tuesday.

Germany has not held a full-scale census since 1987 because hundreds of thousands of Germans consider questionnaires sinister. Instead it has relied on a micro-census: collecting information from a representative 1 percent sample of the population.

While the total population figure of 82 million remains an educated guess, officials say the survey details are reliable.

Disclosing results Tuesday of the 2003 micro-census, federal statisticians said nearly 1.1 million adults were looking for better jobs, mainly because they wanted to earn more, escape part-time jobs or faced imminent expiry of their current employment.

According to Federal Labour Office figures in March, 4,547,500 registered unemployed in Germany or 10.9 percent of working-age people.

The survey conducted last May, also established that 49 percent of Germans over the age of 18 were overweight, one percentage point more than in 1999. Health questions are included in the survey every four years.

The assessment was made by comparing self-reported heights and weights of respondents. The thinnest Germans were teenage girls: 13 percent of females aged 18-19 were classified as underweight.

The survey also established that 27 percent of Germans were smokers as of last May, one percentage point less than in 1999.

DPA

Subject: German news