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Press release No.300 / 2008-08-21


2nd quarter of 2008: Again more than 40 million persons in employment


WIESBADEN – According to provisional results of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the number of persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany amounted to about 40.2 million in the second quarter of 2008, which was by 566,000 persons or 1.4% more than a year earlier. Hence the number of persons in employment for the second time in any quarter since German unification exceeded the number of 40 million, as was the case in the fourth quarter of 2007. However, the employment increase in the reference quarter was slightly smaller than in the first quarter of 2008 when the number of persons in employment was up by 612,000 persons or 1.6% on a year earlier.
 
The seasonal quarter-on-quarter increase in employment was typical of the second quarter of any year. However, the growth in the second quarter of 2008 (+430,000 persons or +1.1%) was smaller than in the second quarter of the previous year (+476,000 persons or +1.2%), although it was above the average rise of the last five years (+410,000 persons or +1.1%).
 
Upon seasonal adjustment, that is the elimination of seasonal fluctuations, the number of persons in employment in the second quarter of 2008 showed an increase of 76,000 (+0.2%) compared with the previous quarter, following an increase in the first quarter which was particularly favourable (+210,000 persons or +0.5%) because of special factors (exceptionally mild weather, seasonal short-time working allowance) which cannot entirely by reflected by the seasonal adjustment method.
 
When examined by economic sectors, the largest employment increase in absolute terms was again contributed by the service sector, consisting of trade and transport, financial, renting and business activities, as well as other service activities. There, the number of persons in employment in the second quarter of 2008 was up by 444,000 persons or 1.5% on a year earlier, following an increase by 481,000 persons or 1.7% in the first quarter of 2008. In the industry (including energy), the number of persons in employment rose by 127,000 persons or 1.6% in the second quarter of 2008 compared with a year earlier (first quarter of 2008: +135,000 persons or +1.7%), in agriculture and forestry by 13.000 persons or 1.5% (first quarter of 2008: +15,000 persons or +1.9%). In construction, however, the downward trend in employment observed since the fourth quarter of 2007 continued: In the second quarter of 2008, the number of jobs lost in construction was roughly the same as in the previous quarter (-18,000 persons or -0.8% on a year earlier).
 
The overall year-on-year rise in employment was almost entirely due to an increase in the number of employees, which in the second quarter of 2008 was up by 563,000 persons (+1.6%) to 35.7 million. In contrast, the number of self-employed including family workers increased just slightly by 3,000 persons (+0.1%) to about 4.5 million in the reference quarter. The main reason for that positive trend among employees was again the growth of jobs subject to social insurance contributions. However, when examining the figures on self-employment, the downward trend of subsidised self-employment must be taken into account.
 
According to first provisional results of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA), the average number of hours worked per person in employment in the second quarter of 2008 was up 1.6% to 346.3 hours on a year earlier. A major reason was that in the second quarter of 2008 three working days more were available than in the same quarter of the previous year. At the same time, the total number of hours worked, that is the number of persons in employment multiplied by hours worked per person in employment, was up 3.1% to 13.9 billion hours.
 
In addition to the first calculation of the number of persons in employment and of the number of hours worked for the second quarter of 2008, the results published so far for the last four years (from 2004) have been revised as part of the regular revisions of national accounts. The main purpose of such routine revisions is to include newly available statistical information into the calculations. At the level of the overall economy, revising the employment figures published so far resulted in a need for change of a maximum of -0.2% for the quarterly results compared with the previous state of computation.

The current national accounts data on employment by quarters and years are available on the Destatis website.
Persons in employment whose place of employment is in Germany
and hours worked 1) 
Year,
quarter		Persons in
employ­ment,
total		Agricul-
ture,
forestry
and
fishing		Industry,
including
energy		Construc-
tion		Service
activities 2)		Hours worked 3)
per
person in employ­ment		by
persons in employ­ment
Persons in 1,000Hoursmn hours
1) For persons in employment: Annual and quarterly averages.
2) Trade, hotel and restaurant services, transport, financial, renting and business activities, other service activities.
3) Source: Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (Institute for Employment Research) of the  Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency), Nuremberg.
200538,8518537,8902,18527,9231,434.055,712
200639,0978267,8222,17728,2721,431.755,975
200739,7688457,9102,21228,8011,433.457,003
20062nd quarter38,9788467,7892,16228,181339.713,241
3rd quarter39,3038617,8342,23928,369362.614,251
4th quarter39,6798287,8952,26128,695361.814,356
20071st quarter39,1617827,8332,15228,394369.214,458
2nd quarter39,6378677,8642,20628,700340.813,508
3rd quarter39,9268827,9342,24328,867362.714,481
4th quarter40,3468498,0102,24529,242360.814,557
20081st quarter39,7737977,9682,13328,875365.514,537
2nd quarter40,2038807,9912,18829,144346.313,922
Change in % on the corresponding period of the previous year
2005–0.1–2.3–1.6–3.10.7–0.5–0.6
2006 0.6–3.2–0.9–0.41.2–0.20.5
2007 1.72.31.11.61.90.11.8
20062nd quarter0.7–3.1–1.1–0.61.4–1.2–0.5
3rd quarter0.9–3.1–0.60.01.5–0.40.5
4th quarter0.9–2.7–0.21.11.4–0.10.8
20071st quarter1.92.10.85.22.00.42.4
2nd quarter1.72.51.02.01.80.32.0
3rd quarter1.62.41.30.21.80.01.6
4th quarter1.72.51.5–0.71.9–0.31.4
20081st quarter1.61.91.7–0.91.7–1.00.5
2nd quarter1.41.51.6–0.81.51.63.1

 
>>> Brief methodological description employment

>>> Brief methodological description hours worked

For further information please call:
Michael Braig,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2932,



 




For more details please refer to the German version.


Publisher:
© Federal Statistical Office of Germany
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Contact:
tel: (+49-611)75-3444
fax: (+49-611)75-3976
presse@destatis.de
www.destatis.de
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Version: 2.25.5 / 20.10.2008