The German labor market is one of the most dynamic in Europe according to a recent study from the Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research (RWI) titled ‘Permeability of European labor markets’ which was commissioned by the Bertelsmann Foundation.  In the study, a total of 23 European countries were compared with regard to their employment policies, job mobility and career prospects.  

The research shows that workers in Germany who have fixed-term contracts have a good chance of obtaining a permanent job. The study compared Germany to France where only one in ten workers with fixed-term contracts found a permanent job within a year, while in Germany it is more than a third. The reasons are, according to the RWI, due to "flexible measures at the enterprise level", which lead to higher chances of promotion in Germany.

In the study, the only other countries that showed to be more dynamic than Germany were Estonia and Lativa. The countries shown to have the most inflexible labour markets include France, Italy and many of eastern European countries.