The final settlement on the labor market is good for the Merkel era.
That was not mapped out 16 years ago: the Chancellor won the 2005 election mainly because the red-green Schröder government could not get unemployment under control.
Nevertheless, with the unpopular Agenda 2010 and tax cuts, it created important prerequisites for the astonishing employment miracle of the Merkel years.
Concern about the number of jobs remained the dominant issue in Merkel's first grand coalition. Only after the employment slump in the financial crisis of 2008 was overcome faster than expected due to special conditions for short-time work and subsidies and employment continued to develop favorably - driven by a long upswing - did the fear of unemployment give way to the sharp debate about whether Germany's jobs are well (paid) be enough.
Merkel's answer: minimum wage laws, restrictions on temporary work and many other new requirements at the expense of employers. With the virus, worries about the workplace came back last year. As in the financial crisis, Merkel's last coalition managed to stabilize employment on time with subsidies - and thus keep it out of the election campaign. A continuation of the full employment course before the pandemic, which is now also supported by demography, seems possible.
However, you will only know whether this will really work if the enormous crisis aid in favor of short-time work no longer blurs the situation.
There are some indications that the auto companies, for example, are currently happy to be able to use the extremely favorable special conditions for short-time work, which were extended until the end of the year, to bridge delivery bottlenecks that are not primarily the result of the pandemic.
Merkel leaves the labor market, measured in terms of employment, much better than she found it.
With the side effects of her policy - many new regulations for employers and empty (social) coffers - she is not leaving her successors with an easy legacy.