Within the 15+ population group there were 44.2% of economically inactive people in the first half of 2003, whilst the biggest proportion consisted of pensioners (23.7%), followed by students and young apprentices (12.3%). The share of the unemployed was 4.8%, housewives and mothers on maternity leave represented 3.4%. In the group of those that were economically active (55.8%), there were 8.
4% of self-employed entrepreneurs, 10.4% of people with a high qualification, specialists, or managers, 9.9% of those with a middle of the range qualification, 13.1% of operations officers or other general officers, 8.4% of skilled manual workers, and 5.6% of unskilled labourers or agricultural labourers. The survey showed that more than a quarter of the 15+ population cannot make themselves understood in any other language but their mother tongue; slightly more than one third of the population (35.5%) can speak one foreign language, 24% master two foreign languages and another 13% can speak in three or more foreign languages. Amongst those languages in which the respondents believed they could make themselves understood, the most frequently identified was German (40.7%), followed by Russian (29%) and English (27%).
