Abstract
This paper concerns local employment initiatives in Germany. Particular attention is devoted to the "market orientation" of these initiatives. The concept of market orientation refers on the one hand to the way in which public funding of a subsidised labour market scheme can be topped up by the sale of goods and services and, on the other, to the conversion of local employment initiatives into normal companies following a period of public funding. Since the contexts surrounding local employment initiatives in east and west Germany are very different, developments in the two parts of Germany are portrayed separately. Some provisions of the Employment Promotion Act are cited, and the difficult circumstances under which market-oriented employment initiatives have to operate are described. One promotion scheme, the "Social Enterprises" of Lower Saxony, is presented to exemplify market-oriented local employment initiatives.
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