IW study: Public services could mobilize 634,000 full-time workers

According to calculations by the German Economic Institute (IW), there is a huge labor reserve in the public sector. If all part-time employees at the federal, state and local governments were increased to full-time, an additional work volume of 634,000 full-time employees would be created, according to a report in the Bild newspaper, citing an as yet unpublished study.

The IW announced that the complete conversion of all part-time positions to full-time represents a theoretical upper limit. If states and municipalities only achieved the average working time level of Saxony-Anhalt, the federal state with the highest average working time in the public sector, there would still be 294,000 additional full-time equivalents. According to the information, the largest absolute reserves are in Bavaria with a calculated 129,800 full-time equivalents, North Rhine-Westphalia with 115,100 and Baden-Württemberg with 111,300.