Employment is no guarantee of happiness

"Germany is a country of stressed out people," runs a headline in German weekly Die Welt Kompakt. “More than half of Germans feel they are under pressure – at work, within the family and because of financial woes," the newspaper continues. Women between 35 and 45 suffer because they are asking too much of themselves and are not able to accommodate both raising children and their careers, according to an opinion poll by the Forsa Institute, published on October 30.

"Work is the number one stress factor," explains Die Welt. As for German financial daily Handelsblatt, it hails "the employment miracle" that provides jobs to 42.2 million Germans, the most since German reunification. In the past five years, 1.5 million jobs have been created and, according to a study by economic institute IFO, the boom is set to continue, adds the paper.

Given these figures, daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is puzzled by German angst –

Trust the Germans! For the first time, 42 million people have a job in Germany, yet public opinion continues to rail against labour market conditions. There is no government on Earth that would not immediately swap these conditions for those in their own country. But while half of the world tries to copy the "German employment miracle," its creators are losing sight of it all.