Germany's low unemployment rate hides real hardship As a society, Germany has grown more unequal since the start of the millennium, with a widening gap between the salaries of the highest and lowest paid, according to OECD figures, though unlike other countries that gap hasn't widened since the credit crunch began. Astrid Lehmann, leaving a kitchenware shop empty-handed, said: "Everything's fine for me. But in my circle of acquaintances, there's uncertainty. Everything's so dear and prices are rising. I'm a pensioner, but I'm concerned that for my children and grandchildren there are no longer permanent jobs - its one-year contracts. Doris Sauter, 63, visiting a BMW showroom with her brother, agreed: "It used to be that you would join a company as a 15-year-old apprentice, and you'd still be there at 60. Now jobs aren't so secure. In a country where just under half the population lives in rented accommodation, there is mounting concern about rising rents too. These anxieties prompted Mrs Merkel to include rent controls in her party's manifesto, unexpectedly stealing a policy the opposition Social Democrats were counting on as a vote-winner. Last year, average rent per square metre rose between 7pc and 9pc in Berlin, Munich and Stuttgart, while sale prices for apartments rose by twice that rate - more than 15pc in Berlin and Munich, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, a property services company. A shop assistant in a leather goods store on the Kurfürstendamm, who declined to give her name, said: "I'm fine, but in Berlin rents are rising. When I moved to Berlin in the 1990s, you could get a flat for very little money. For young families it's getting harder all the time. In business, it's a real struggle every day - there's so much competition between the shops. It used to be that you'd go to Hugo Boss to buy a suit, and another shop to buy a bag - but now everyone sells everything. A security guard outside shop selling luxury Swiss watches nodded at the well-dressed crowds of shoppers on the Ku'damm and said: "People here have got a job. You need to go and ask in [the working class districts] Neukoelln and Wedding.