The new Unemployment Figures for November 2007 have been released. Compared with October 2007, the nationwide unemployment rate has decreased by 1.6 percent to 3,38 million persons. The number of unemployed disabled people dropped from 161,315 to 157,520, a decrease of 2.4 percent.

These figures show, that the positive development on the German labour market is finally having an effect for disabled people as well. Whereas the general unemployment figures started to drop at the beginning of 2007, it took until August, for a similar development to take place for disabled people.

But it seems this change on the labour market comes at a price. A growing number of people can hardly live on what they earn in a full-time job. This problem also concerns workshop employees who are mostly dependent on social benefits which they receive in addition to their wages. The Catholic Archbishop Ludwig Schick from Bamberg, Bavaria, therefore proposed the idea of minimum wages in workshops: “Anyone who makes use of his talent for the benefit of society should have a right to receive a wage which he or she can live on.“