with the reform of mini-jobs introduced in 2003, the government has made a 180-degree shift in this sensitive low-wage sector, which benefits from a specific regulatory framework. As a key element of the restructuring of the labour market sought by Chancellor Schröder to combat unemployment, very part-time jobs have undergone a fate. Favoured by all German governments until the end of the 90s, they were subject to very restrictive regulation by the SPD/Greens Government as soon as it came to power in 1999. Four years later, the same government discovered the low-wage sector as a new instrument in the fight against unemployment. Not only does it go back to all decisions taken in 1999, but it broadens the sector beyond what existed before. The new reform, which entered into force in 2003, must also be able to facilitate the return of unemployed people to employment. Specialists are sceptical.