Many Germans seem to be dissatisfied with their jobs. According to the Federal Statistical Office, in March 2007 3.23 million employees were actively looking for a new or additional place of work which is approximately one person in twelve. Thus, the number of employees looking for work has grown by 360.000 since March 2005.
The situation is different for jobless people the number of which fell to 3.03 million in March 2007. Thus, there are currently less jobless people looking for a job than employed people. According to experts there may be very different reasons for job-hunting.
In the course of a telephone survey from which the above data were retrieved employed people looking for a job were also asked for their motives. In March 2007 two in three people questioned said that by finding a new job they wanted to improve their working conditions, earn more money or work more hours. About 17% just looked for an additional job and another 17% already knew that their then employment was going to end soon. The objective to improve one´s professional situation has gained in importance over the past two years. Back in March 2005 just 60% of employed people looking for a job wanted to improve their professional situation while 21% had to go job-hunting given that they were going to lose the job they had in those days. 