@Musashi &
@Picanha
The fact that only a third of Ukrainian refugees in Germany work for a living is mainly through no fault of their own, though.
You both know I'm highly critical of "refugees welcome" style policies, but I just can't blame those people for using the system when that's what the system basically forces them to do. It's an irony of history (and a measure of the sheer incompetence of the Merkel and Scholz administrations) that Germany combines extremely immigration-friendly migration laws with extremely immigration-hostile labour laws.
A refugee
cannot legally work in Germany without a permit (a compromise struck in the 1990's to protect Germans' jobs).
But he or she won't get a work permit until their application for asylum has been processed and decided upon, which may take more than a year. In addition, the application process for a work permit itself may easily take up another six months.
And in many cases whilst the refugee's asylum plea may be squashed, they still can't be deported for unrelated reasons (e.g. refusal of cooperation on part of their country of origin), in which case they won't get a work permit due to their status as an illegal immigrant.
Even if they do get a permit, most of them will not be able to actually contribute to society as the law blocks them from working in their previous trade or profession. Most jobs in Germany require a formal training under standards set by the chambers (of commerce, trade, medicine etc. pp.). If a foreigner wants to take up employment, they have to prove that whatever training they graduated from is equal to its German counterpart. It's a relatively easy process for migrants from within the European Union, but ridiculously difficult for anybody else.
In practice, this means that e.g. an Ukrainian nurse with twenty years of experience on the job will be treated by German law as a complete and utter layperson until she's jumped through all the bureaucratic hoops and proven her training is as good as a German nurse's. Until then, she won't be able to work as a nurse. That's easily another year spent waiting for a notice of recognition.
Of course our Ukrainian nurse could take up some form unskilled labour (such as a harvest hand), or she could seek to re-train and acquire a German professional degree – but why would she want to do that if she hopes she'll be able to return to Ukraine soon enough?
There'll be Ukrainians who fled to Germany on February 24 2022, who're still waiting for all their bloody paperwork to be done. So frankly, if we're talking about
actual refugees who mean to return to their county of origin
as soon as possible, I absolutely understand anyone who just tells themselves "are you kidding me with all that red tape, I'll just live off the dole then". I know I'd to the same.