Job placement, unemployment insurance, and active labor market policy in Germany were reviewed. The following were among the review's main conclusions: (1) measures of active and passive labor market policy are still regarded as important to combating unemployment and improving the matching function of the German labor market; (2) the many different instruments of active labor market policy that are in use in Germany have been only slightly "modernized" in Germany's new Job-AQTIV Law, which emphasizes activation of the unemployed and follows the trend observed in other countries of brining together elements of active and passive labor market policies; (3) Germany's multitude of instruments of active labor market policy and their high cost are partly due to the events following Germany's unification; (4) unemployment remains high in the eastern part of Germany, and only parts of its economy can stand up to competition on the world market; and (5) Germany's high degree of intervention in the labor market is intended to ease the labor market situation and make it socially more acceptable. It was concluded that measures of active labor market policy will likely result in a redistribution of the risks of unemployment rather than in a lasting reduction of the unemployment level. (Contains 41 references.) (MN)