Edited sentence: Areas that either no longer exist or have been sharply reduced include those in toolmaking (VEB Wema Union), textiles (VEB Modedruck), textile machinery (VEB Textima), electronic equipment (VEB Elektronik Gera).By 2003, there were three major retail centers:  Gera-Arcaden, Amthor-Passage, and Elster-Forum.Industrial branches before 1990 no longer have major importance.One important industrial branch had been uranium ore mining in nearby Ronneburg (SDAG Wismut).Other companies include a compressor manufacturer (Kompressorenwerk Kaeser), a precision tool maker (SMK-Präzisionsmechanik), and a subsidary of the construction company Max Bögl.Other industry that had a presence were VEB Carl Zeiss Jena and a brewery.The current economy is best represented by the private health sector (SRH Waldklinikum), industrial machinery (Dagro Gera GmbH), communications (DTKS GmbH, Deutsch Telekom AG), security locks (Schloßsicherungen Gera GmbH), optics (POG Präzisionsoptik Gera GmbH), electrical equipment (Electronicon Kondensatoren GmbH), and margarine manufacturing (Othüna).The e-commerce service provider D+S Europe has a service center in Gera with several hundred workers, and Rittal, an information technology enclosure manufacturer, has recently moved from Bad Köstritz to Gera.The percent unemployed improved from 15.4% in June 2007 to 14.8% in June 2008.This makes Gera a regional commercial center for retail.Though it is the third largest city in Thuringia, it ranks 7th place in terms of unemployment.Throughout the East Thuringia/Gera metropolitan area, there is a populaton of 450,000