Scientific Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Economics - Job market economics, grade: keine, University of Southampton (School of Management), language: English, abstract: Contemporary Labour Markets in Germany and Poland: In the light of international competition, labour markets within the European Union (EU) are affected. Consequently, member states (MS) such as Germany and Poland are implementing labour market policies to convert into knowledge-based societies; clearly, the labour market competitiveness requires a highly skilled workforce (Harvey & Knight, 2003). Thus, for knowledge-based societies it is crucial to augment the employability of their workforce (Itzel, 2006). The European Council pinpointed these issues in the Lisbon Strategy, which was introduced in March 2000 and revised in 2005. Further, the EU promoted Europe 2020 aiming for flexible and knowledge driven economies with superior employment opportunities and better social consistency (Alvarez, Meneghini & Richter, 2006; European Council, 2005).