Significantly more babies

In times of crisis, the Hessians also move together - that this is actually true is shown, for example, in the birth statistics. In the first nine months of the year alone, 46,200 children were born in Hesse, which is a good 1100 more than in the same period in 2020. Only the 20-year record of 2018 was just missed. By the way, the inhabitants of the Main-Kinzig and Groß-Gerau districts were most likely to give birth compared to previous years. The small baby boom can of course also be due to the fact that couples simply spent a lot more time at home than usual due to lockdown and home office, and at some point the media libraries are looked through. But births are always an indicator of how economically and socially secure potential parents feel.In fact, in the entire first Corona year 2020, significantly fewer babies were born than usual. Now the Hessians seem to be more optimistic again.

The economy is booming

Falk Heunemann

Business editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Markus Schug

Correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.

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What was not all feared for the pandemic-plagued economy.

Many workers, it was warned, could lose their jobs.

But it didn't turn out that bad, on the contrary.

While in 2020 the main aim was to keep the number of layoffs low with the help of short-time work and state aid, significantly more men and women have found new jobs this year.

The number of unemployed fell by around 30,000 within a year in Hesse; at under five percent, the rate is almost as low as it was before the outbreak of the pandemic.

In fact, more and more industries are now feeling a shortage of skilled workers.

The wages are increasing

The new shortage of skilled workers is a problem for companies that are unable to process incoming customer orders. For quite a few employees, however, the result is that their work is valued more, and in a measurable way: In several industries, the collective bargaining partners have agreed on higher wages - after long negotiations and labor disputes. A record result was achieved by employees in an industry that was previously not considered to be highly paid: In the hospitality industry, salaries will rise by a total of 15 percent over the next two years. Sure, the increase from a low level could also be enforced because the federal government announced a higher minimum wage. But the most important thing for the employees concerned isthat by the end of the month they will have more in their pockets in the future.

More donations, more help

Now, of course, the additional income could simply be consumed, the trade would certainly have been happy. But at least part of this was not used by many Hessians for themselves this year, but for others. Nationwide, around 5.8 billion euros are likely to have been donated this year, according to the Donation Council, more than ever since the survey started in 2005. Both the number of donors and the individual sums have increased accordingly. This does not include company donations. Several banks and corporations have each paid six to seven-digit amounts to aid organizations, craft guilds collected from their members, Opel and Hyundai provided replacement vehicles, Kion even forklifts. And then there are the unpaid services and working hours,which, for example, many volunteers from Hessian aid organizations have raised to repair the damage caused by the flood in West Germany.

Overnight debt free

Hardly any other German municipality is likely to benefit as much from the Corona crisis as Mainz.

Mayor Günter Beck (Die Grünen) is expecting a budget surplus of just under 1.1 billion euros for the year that is coming to an end;

actually a two-digit million deficit was expected.

And in 2022 - although the trade tax will be reduced - it could be an increase of 500 million euros.

Which enables the city, which has been heavily indebted to date, to become debt-free almost overnight.