Official German unemployment statistics were analyzed along with data from Germany's microcensus and other published sources to identify recent labor market trends and to clarify the relationship between qualifications and employment opportunities in the new German economy. The analysis revealed that, as has been true for years, the lower the qualification levels of Germans, the poorer their position in the labor market. Whereas university and polytechnic graduates were able to gain jobs continuously throughout the 1990s, the labor market opportunities of Germans without a vocational training qualification deteriorated steadily. In 1997, nearly one in four people in western Germany and one in two people in eastern Germany with no vocational qualification were unemployed. Sharp decreases in opportunities in the manufacturing sector have occurred throughout Germany. Western Germany has gained nearly 1.3 million jobs in the service sector; however, similar increases have not occurred in Germany's eastern regions. Since Germany's reunification, the labor market situation of men in the old Lander has deteriorated considerably. In the new Lander, on the other hand, the decline in employment hit women hardest (at least until the mid-1990s). (The bibliography contains 27 references. Appended are tables detailing qualification-specific unemployment rates by gender, region, and qualification level.) (MN)