Press release No.079 / 2008-02-28

January 2008: Number of persons in employment increasing by half a million on a year earlier

WIESBADEN – The development of employment continued to be favourable in January 2008. According to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the number of persons in employment in that month was up by 523,000 on January 2007. That was an increase of 1.3%. Compared with December 2007, the number of persons in employment declined by 582,000 in January 2008. Usually, however, the seasonal decline in employment is even stronger between those two months. In January 2008, the number of persons in employment whose place of residence was in Germanyamounted to 39.57 million.

The year-on-year rises in employment amounted to 1.5% or more during all months of the previous year. The fact that the increase recorded in January 2008 (+1.3%) was for the first time less marked must be seen against the background of the high level of employment reached in January 2007, which the number of persons in employment for January 2008 is compared with (basis-related effect). With the exception of January 2007, a year-on-year growth as strong as the one recorded in January 2008 has not been observed in a January since 2000.

As usual at this time of the year, the number of persons in employment decreased in January 2008 on a month earlier. Compared to December, the number was down by 582,000. That was a smaller decline than the December-to-January decreases observed on an average of the previous five years (-636,000). In addition to the impact of the favourable economic conditions and the mild weather, the seasonal short-time working allowance introduced in 2007 might have had a mitigating effect on the decline.

The seasonally adjusted number of persons in employment (upon elimination of the typical seasonal fluctuations) saw a positive trend in January 2008 on December 2007. This supports the overall impression that employment would continue to develop in a favourable manner. In the aforementioned period, the number of persons in employment increased by 72,000. In this context, however, it should be noted that the newly introduced seasonal short-time working allowance was not yet fully considered in the seasonal adjustment procedure.

Based on the labour force survey, Destatis determined a seasonally adjusted 3.26 million unemployed for January 2008. That figure, which is a provisional estimate, was calculated according to the concept of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Compared with the same month a year earlier (January 2007), the number of unemployed was down by 540,000 persons or 14.2%. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate – which is harmonised across the EU and measured as the share of unemployed in the total labour force – amounted to 7.6% in Germany and was thus considerably below the level of the corresponding month of the previous year (8.8%).

More results, including the original unemployment data which have not been seasonally adjusted, can be accessed on the internet at http://www.destatis.de, path: Topics --> Labour market --> ILO labour market statistics. Here, you will also find detailed methodological notes on the ILO labour market statistics, the labour force survey and the microcensus.

>>> brief methodological description

For further information please contact:
For „employment“:
Stephan Lüken,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2016,

For „unemployment“:
Thomas Körner,
tel: (+49-611) 75-4413,

E-mail: arbeitsmarkt@destatis.de

Persons in employment whose place of residence is in Germany ¹⁾
Year	Month	Original values			Seasonally adjusted ²⁾
Year	Month	persons	change on previous month	change on the same month of the previous year	persons	change on previous month
¹⁾Results of employment accounts as part of national accounting: persons in employment whose place of residence is in Germany(resident concept). The respective time series for persons in employment whose place of work is in Germany (domestic concept) are presented on the Internet at http://www.destatis.de. ²⁾ Seasonal adjustment by Census-X12-Arima.
		in million	in %		in million	in %
2007	January	39.043	–1.3	1.8	39.433	0.4
	February	39.094	0.1	1.9	39.489	0.1
	March	39.241	0.4	1.9	39.556	0.2
	April	39.431	0.5	1.9	39.605	0.1
	May	39.573	0.4	1.7	39.623	0.0
	June	39.618	0.1	1.5	39.627	0.0
	July	39.574	–0.1	1.5	39.655	0.1
	August	39.679	0.3	1.5	39.695	0.1
	September	40.011	0.8	1.6	39.736	0.1
	October	40.217	0.5	1.6	39.780	0.1
	November	40.287	0.2	1.6	39.828	0.1
	December	40.148	–0.3	1.5	39.881	0.1
2008	January	39.566	–1.4	1.3	39.953	0.2

Unemployed persons whose place of residence is in Germany – seasonally adjusted results ³⁾
Unemployed	January 2008	Previous month		Same month of previous year
Unemployed	January 2008	December 2007	change	January 2007	Change
³⁾Estimated seasonally adjusted unemployment data based on the labour force survey. Provisional results. ⁴⁾Share of unemployed persons in the total labour force (persons in employment and unemployed) according to the European definition: Persons in employment and unemployed persons in households from 15 years of age or from 15 to 74 years (unemployed) as well as persons in employment excluding persons doing compulsory military service an conscripts on compulsory community service. Sub-groups defined accordingly.
Persons	in million		in %	in million	in %
Total	3.26	3.35	–2.7	3.80	–14.2
Men	1.75	1.82	–3.5	2.04	–14.3
Women	1.51	1.54	–1.8	1.76	–14.1
15 to 24-year olds	0.53	0.55	–3.4	0.61	–13.2
25 to 74-year olds	2.74	2.81	–2.6	3.20	–14.4
Unemployment rate ⁴⁾	Shares in %		in %	Shares in %	in %
Total	7.6	7.8	–2.7	8.8	–14.1
Men	7.7	7.9	–3.4	8.9	–14.1
Women	7.5	7.6	–1.9	8.8	–14.2
15 to 24-year olds	10.2	10.5	–3.2	11.6	–12.6
25 to 74-year olds	7.2	7.4	–2.6	8.5	–14.4

For more details please refer to the German version.

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

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Postal address:
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Germany

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