According to the Association of German Engineers (VDI) the number of jobless woman engineers has almost halved over the past three years. While the unemployment rate of woman engineers was 21.5% in 2003, it amounted to just 12% in the year 2006 and in some fields such as electrical engineering even only 7%. In the opinion of the VDI the reasons for this sharp decline are a growing lack of specialists and an economic pick-up. more…

A big success was celebrated by the European Anti-Fraud Office in the course of the so-called »Operation Diabolo«: besides 135 million counterfeit brand name cigarettes it was also possible to confiscate 557.000 other counterfeits such as clothes, footwear, toys, furniture, suitcases and wristwatches. The operation was a cross-border action carried out by customs authorities from all 27 EU member states in co-operation with Interpol, Europol and the World Customs Organization. more…

According to the Federal Statistical Office the turnover generated in the German retail trade in 2005 with regard to books and professional journals amounted to more than 4 billion Euros (without VAT). more…

For several years the Federal Ministry for economic affairs and technology has provided further education to Russian executives in Germany. Last year this educational programme was extended by another one aimed at giving training to young German executives from small and medium-sized entities in companies in Russia. more…

The often cited economic miracle of the Football World Cup is just a myth, say economists Karl Brenke and Gert G. Wagner of the German Institute for economic research. Even though the organizers, FIFA and the German Football Association, earned millions of Euros, the macroeconomic effect is said to have been quite limited. more…

About two thirds of all vacancies in Germany address graduates from technical study courses. Economic and IT experts, however, are less sought after by companies. Only one in four companies plan to hire an economic or social expert and only one in five companies look for computer experts. Particularly many vacancies are provided by small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). more…

Three innovative companies were honoured with the international “Energy Efficiency Award” for exemplary projects aimed at increasing energy efficiency by Mr. Michael Glos, Federal Minister for the environment. This prize is awarded by the Deutsche Energie-Agentur (dena) in co-operation with Deutsche Messe. more…

According to the German Bundesbank there was a surplus of 8.4 billion Euros in the German balance of current accounts in February 2007. This is 2.8 billion Euros less than in January this year. The reasons for this are a smaller active balance in the balance of trade and higher negative balances in other parts of macroeconomic accounting. more…

According to the Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (VDMA) Germany was the second most important manufacturer of machinery and equipment worldwide in 2006. Exports reached a record high of 122.8 billion Euros. The number of machinery and equipment produced worldwide amounted to almost 1.3 billion Euros in 2006 which corresponds to an increase by 8.5 percent. The VDMA forecasts that 2007 is set to become another record year. more…

The »State of Internet Security Report« by the Webroot Software Inc. indicates an increase in malware which at the same time becomes technically more and more sophisticated. According to the study, 43% of companies questioned already suffered from a disruption of their business operations due to malware which has already contaminated 4.2 million websites. more…