The poll, conducted by German public broadcasters WDR and ARD, indicated that 42 percent of workers in the country - the highest number since the beginning of the economic crisis - are worried about their jobs.

In a similar poll conducted in June, about 37 percent of respondents said they were afraid of losing their jobs.

Against the backdrop of recent developments at carmaker Opel, the beleaguered European subsidiary of General Motors, ARD found that more than 58 percent of Germans believe that everything possible will be done to try to save jobs.

Nine out of every ten respondents also found that the policy should not always be to focus on Opel's welfare because employees of other companies are also apprehensive about their jobs.

At the same time, 91 percent of the respondents said they had sympathy for Opel workers and expressed "understanding" for the way in which they are currently responding to the situation.

Thousands of Opel workers took the streets in Germany on Thursday to protest parent company General Motors' decision to scrap the planned sale of its European subsidiary as part of a deal backed by the German government. German workers fear that with GM continuing at the helm, they may now be hit harder than employees in other European countries where Opel factories are located.

Five hundred people were interviewed over telephone on Wednesday for the poll.

Mixed feelings about unification

A separate survey by German public television channels ZDF and ARD showed that 20 years after the Berlin Wall fell, 86 percent of Germans think reunification was a good thing.

However, the results of the poll released on Thursday showed that many respondents in the ex-communist East do have some reservations.

With the demise of communism taking away some old certainties, such as a steady job, nearly two-thirds of the former residents of East Germany said capitalism has made society less just. Only 21 percent of respondents reported feeling the opposite.

And with vast amounts of taxpayers' money having been invested in the east since 1990, 60 percent of people from the former West Germany think that people in the East have been the main beneficiaries of the past 19 years.

Only eight percent of easterners and 12 percent of westerners think the unification of West and East Germany in 1990 was a bad decision.

rb/epd/AFP

Editor: Kyle James