Press release No.203 / 2004-05-05

February 2004: Employment down by 131 000 persons on a year earlier

WIESBADEN – According to provisional results of the Federal Statistical Office, the number of persons in employment whose place of employment is in Germany was about 37.6 million in February 2004. That were 0.3% or 131,000 less persons than a year yearlier. Thus the decline in employment in February 2004 was nearly as strong as in January 2004 (January 2004: –134,000 persons).

Compared with the previous month, there was a decline in employment due to seasonal effects in February 2004, as in the two preceding years. This year, however, it was somewhat smaller (–16,000 persons) than in February 2003 (–19,000 persons).

Upon seasonal adjustment, i.e. the elimination of seasonal variations, the month-on-month decline in employment in Germany amounted to 20,000 persons in February 2004, following a decrease by 16,000 persons in January 2004. The seasonal decline in employment on the preceding month thus has grown again since the beginning of 2004, whereas in the fourth quarter of 2003 hardly any seasonal declines were observed.

First results on the employment trend in the first quarter of 2004 will be published in the first release on employment on 11 May 2004.

These are the results for the last 13 months according to the current position of computations:

Persons in employment whose place of employment is in Germany Original values

Year/month		Persons	Change on the previous year/ on the corresponding month of the previous year		Change on the previous month
Year/month		1 000		%	1 000	%
		Annual average
1999		38 071	455	1.2	X	X
2000		38 748	677	1.8	X	X
2001		38 911	163	0.4	X	X
2002		38 671	– 240	– 0.6	X	X
2003		38 246	– 425	– 1.1	X	X
		Monthly average
2003	February	37 775	– 566	– 1.5	– 19	– 0.1
	March	37 930	– 565	– 1.5	155	0.4
	April	38 137	– 562	– 1.5	207	0.5
	May	38 221	– 535	– 1.4	84	0.2
	June	38 298	– 428	– 1.1	77	0.2
	July	38 283	– 398	– 1.0	– 15	0.0
	August	38 322	– 383	– 1.0	39	0.1
	September	38 517	– 351	– 0.9	195	0.5
	October	38 621	– 305	– 0.8	104	0.3
	November	38 606	– 236	– 0.6	– 15	0.0
	December	38 455	– 175	– 0.5	– 151	– 0.4
2004	January	37 660	– 134	– 0.4	– 795	– 2.1
2004	February	37 644	– 131	– 0.3	– 16	0.0

Seasonally adjusted values ¹⁾

Month		Persons	Change on the previous month
Month		1 000
		Monthly average
2003	February	38 296	– 21
	March	38 273	– 23
	April	38 259	– 14
	May	38 241	– 18
	June	38 264	23
	July	38 261	– 3
	August	38 229	– 32
	September	38 210	– 19
	October	38 210	0
	November	38 202	– 8
	December	38 200	– 2
2004	January	38 184	– 16
2004	February	38 164	– 20

1) Census-X-12-Arima method.

For further information please call: Dagmar Ziegler,
tel: (+49-611) 75–2634,
e-mail: vgr-erwerbstaetige@destatis.de

For more details please refer to the German version.

Contact:
tel: (+49-611)75-3444
fax: (+49-611)75-3976
presse@destatis.de
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