by minister-president Anke Rehlinger. Current government of the Saarland Economy The gross domestic product (GDP) of the state was €35.4 billion in 2018, accounting for 1.1% of German economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €32,800 or 109% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 93% of the EU average. The GDP per capita was the second lowest of all states in West Germany. Important income sources are the automobile industry, steel industry, ceramic industry and computer science and information systems industry. In the past, coal mining was an important branch of industry. However, the last coal mine in Saarland closed in 2012, ending 250 years of coal mining history in the region. The decision to close the mines was motivated by safety concerns about earthquakes in the region. The unemployment rate stood at 5.8% in October 2018 and was higher than the national average but below the EU28 average. Education Saarland is home to the Saarland University and the administrative headquarters of the Franco-German University. Culture Local dialect People in the Saarland speak Rhine Franconian (in the southeast, very similar to that dialect spoken in the western part of the Palatinate) and Moselle Franconian (in the northwest, very similar to that dialect spoken along the river Moselle and the cities of Trier or even in Luxembourg). Outside of the Saarland, specifically the Rhine-Franconian variant spoken in the state capital Saarbrücken is generally considered to be the Saarland dialect. The two dialect regions are mainly separated by the / isogloss; in the northwestern portion of the state, including cities such as Saarlouis, standard German is pronounced with a final instead of an . In general, both dialects are an integral part of Saarland identity. Both dialects, particularly in their respective Saarland flavour, share many characteristic features, some of which will be explained below. Women and girls are often referred to using the neuter pronoun , with the pronunciation being something like : (it told me so', instead of she told me so'; vs. High German: ). This stems from the word (girl) being neuter ( is correct when referring to words like but would not be used by itself in reference to a woman). The subjunctive in Rhine Franconian is normally composed with the words (High German = "would do") or ("would go") as auxiliary verbs: ("I would say that...") instead