So the unemployment rate in the Ruhr area was 0.7% in 1970.
You mean the unemployment rate in West Germany? That was 0.7%. You probably misunderstood ChapGpt.
In the Ruhr area, it was already higher then. It started very early. Coal crisis since the mid/end of the 1950s. Long-lasting structural change. Attractiveness of the region low – even though jobs were available.
In the Ruhr area, the unemployment rate in 1970 was between 2% and 3% in the respective cities. Three to four times higher than in the rest of the republic. Just some facts. It would be like saying today that with an unemployment rate of +/- 20% (3–4 times the current actual rate) one wouldn’t recognize a decline.
To speak of a foreseeable decline... well, that’s just nonsense, as usual...
Get familiar with the Ruhr area. Coal crisis, structural change, steel crisis etc. – it went very fast after the economic miracle.
And finally, please don’t confuse attractiveness with a flourishing region (the peak of development, as said, already withered with the mining crisis/coal crisis). You can look at old videos to see the attractiveness. Bombed-out cities, hastily and ugly rebuilt, endless dirt from steelworks/coke plants and coal, little greenery, highways everywhere, and diesel locomotives polluting the air etc.