The daily newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" released an evaluation of federal employment statistics on Thursday, claiming that fewer German children are living below the poverty line, but not all parts of the country are enjoying the same levels of success.

According to the report, the number of children younger than 15 years old receiving funds from the state welfare program Hartz IV decreased from 1.9 million to 1.64 million between September 2006 and September 2011.

The decline between 2010 and 2011 stood out, as the number of children in Hartz IV households shrank by nearly 84,000.

"Fewer children in Hartz IV means that job centers have managed to find their parents jobs," the Federal Employment Agency's Heinrich Alt told the paper.

"The chances of finding a job today are clearly better than they were three or four years ago."

In looking at the report, however, it becomes clear that there are marked regional. Bavaria showed the best results over the five-year period, while Bremen, Hamburg and densely populated North-Rhine Westphalia showed smaller improvements, below the national average decrease of 13.5 percent.

Berlin fared worst. There the number of needy children decreased by only 1.2 percent. More than one in three children in the capital rely on Hartz IV, compared with the national average of one in seven.

Author: Stuart Tiffen (dpa, KNA)
Editor: Nancy Isenson