For Martin Harmann it was another fruitless morning in the Hanover labour office - the latest disappointment in a two-year quest for a job. "I've spent two hours looking, and found just two jobs in the whole of Germany ... Every job I apply for, there are 200, 300 or 400 other people going for it," the 46-year-old construction technician said. "Germany can't carry on like this."
A common theme emerged in conversations this week with voters in the central town of Hanover where Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder began his rise to power - the gloomy conviction that Germany, for all its power and affluence, is in deep crisis.
In a parliamentary election now less than two weeks away, voters will pass judgement on the seven-year rule of Social Democrat Schroeder, who trails badly in opinion polls behind his conservative challenger Angela Merkel.
Was Schroeder's government squarely to blame for a sharp rise in unemployment, which briefly surged above 5 million in February to a post World War Two record, and a ballooning deficit which this year will breach the EU's budget rules for the fourth year running?
Or does Germany's plight stem from factors outside Schroeder's control - the costs of unification, the introduction of the euro, the pressure of global competition from new EU members and Asia? Is his government on the right track with a package of painful welfare cuts designed to take more people off the dole and get them back into jobs?
For Harmann, a divorced man living 40 km (25 miles) from Hanover, the "catastrophic" cuts have slashed his monthly income by a third, from 800 euros ($1,000) to 540 ($675), and even the six euro train fare into the city is a significant expense.
He plans to vote tactically for the new Left Party - a new alliance of former communists and breakaway Social Democrats - in the hope of bringing about a hung parliament where the major parties will be forced into sharing power.
"I want the established parties to get so few votes that they're obliged to work together," he said.
Frank Schmidt, 27, selling grilled sausages for a euro each under a striped umbrella near Hanover station, voted Schroeder at the last election in 2002 but says it is time for a change.
"He's a good tactician, he can talk, he's charismatic, but it doesn't work ... He can't push things through," said Schmidt.
He too will vote tactically this time - awarding the first of his two votes to the local candidate of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, and the second to her prospective coalition partners, the liberal Free Democrats.
Some of the most trenchant criticism of Schroeder comes from businessman in small and middle-sized companies - known in German as the "Mittelstand". These provide more than 80 percent of jobs in Lower Saxony state, of which Hanover is the capital.
The top complaints from local businessmen are high labour costs, excessive bureaucracy, the formidably complex tax system and job protection rules which make it risky to recruit.
"The only thing the Mittelstand has got from this government is hurdles in its path. (Schroeder) will be measured on facts and actions, not on words," said Harald Tenzer, a petrol dealer.
Gernot Schmidt, who runs a plumbing business employing 19 staff, blames Schroeder for scrapping certification rules for tradesmen and flooding the market with unqualified workers.
"When Schroeder was here as state premier, he was an agreeable partner for the Mittelstand and we hoped he would be in Berlin too, but exactly the opposite happened ... He has conducted a policy which in many points hurt the interests of tradesmen," he said.
"He fell too much under the influence of big industry."
Markus, 26, a business consultant, said he has not fully made up his mind but is tending towards the conservatives.
"I'm not 100 percent convinced by either side," he said.
Schroeder's reforms were on the right track but "he can't go as far as he needs to, for political reasons. He's from a workers' party, and he can't push though neo-liberal policies."
But on the streets of Hanover, where Schroeder was state premier of Lower Saxony from 1990 to 1998, some voters, at least, are less harsh in their judgement on him and his party.
"A lot of things the SPD have started need a bit of time. I want to give them a chance for four more years to let the reforms bear fruit," said Karla Kuenstler, 34, a flower seller.
Lisel Busch, customer adviser to a utility company, says things in Germany are definitely worse than seven years ago, when Schroeder took power. But she was impressed with him in a televised debate last Sunday and doubts if his challenger, Merkel, could do any better.
Busch may not decide until September 18, election day, whether to vote for Schroeder again or to spoil her ballot paper.
"It's either the SPD or no one. The alternative would be not to vote at all, out of desperation. I would just cross them all out," she said.