Press release No.404 / 2008-10-30

Employment increase continues

WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on the basis of first calculations for September 2008, the number of persons in employment whose place of residence was in Germanyamounted to 40.62 million. That was an increase by 568,000 persons (+1.4%) on September 2007. The employment increase thus continued in September 2008. According to all data available, the current development on the financial markets did not change that trend in the reference month.

After elimination of the typical seasonal variations, the number of persons in employment in Germanyamounted to 40.36 million in September 2008. Compared with August 2008, that was a seasonally adjusted increase by 21,000 persons (+0.1%). This corresponds with the development of the seasonally adjusted number of persons in employment over the last six months with an average increase by 26,000 persons per month.

Beyond the first calculation of the number of persons in employment for reference month September 2008, the monthly and quarterly employment results published so far were recalculated back to January 2008 as part of the regular revision of national accounts, integrating all data of sources of employment statistics that have become available now. Altogether, the recalculations required changing the monthly employment data by a maximum of 0.2% compared with the results published before.

Based on the labour force survey, Destatis determines unemployment figures according to the concept of the International Labour Organization (ILO). According to provisional estimates, the number of unemployed amounted to a seasonally adjusted 3.07 million in September 2008. Compared with September 2007, unemployment was down by a seasonally adjusted 450,000 persons or 12.5%. 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 7.1% in Germany and was thus considerably below the level of the corresponding month of the previous year (8.2%).

More results, including i.a. the original unemployment data which have not been seasonally adjusted, can be accessed on the Internet. Here, you will also find detailed methodological notes on the ILO labour market statistics, the labour force survey and the microcensus.

Persons in employment whose place of residence is in Germany¹⁾
Year	Month	Original values			Seasonally adjusted²⁾
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. ²⁾ Seasonal adjustment by Census-X12-Arima.
		in million	in %		in million	in %
2007	August	39.713	0.3	1.6	39.740	0.1
	September	40.048	0.8	1.7	39.795	0.1
	October	40.297	0.6	1.8	39.871	0.2
	November	40.332	0.1	1.7	39.901	0.1
	December	40.179	–0.4	1.6	39.947	0.1
2008	January	39.723	–1.1	1.7	40.084	0.3
	February	39.774	0.1	1.7	40.142	0.1
	March	39.926	0.4	1.7	40.207	0.2
	April	40.070	0.4	1.6	40.223	0.0
	May	40.189	0.3	1.5	40.234	0.0
	June	40.233	0.1	1.5	40.254	0.0
	July	40.210	–0.1	1.6	40.302	0.1
	August	40.317	0.3	1.5	40.342	0.1
	September	40.616	0.7	1.4	40.363	0.1

Unemployed persons whose place of residence is in Germany– seasonally adjusted results ³⁾
Unemployed	September 2008	Previous month		Same month of previous year
Unemployed	September 2008	August 2008	change	September 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 aged 15 to 74 years living in households, excluded are persons doing compulsory military or alternative civilian service. Subgroups with corresponding breakdown.
Persons	in million		in %	in million	in %
Total	3.07	3.10	–0.7	3.52	–12.5
Men	1.67	1.68	–0.4	1.90	–12.0
Women	1.41	1.42	–1.1	1.62	–13.2
15 to 24-year olds	0.48	0.49	–0.6	0.58	–16.3
25 to 74-year olds	2.59	2.61	–0.7	2.94	–11.8
Unemployment rate ⁴⁾	Shares in %		in %	Shares in %	in %
Total	7.1	7.2	–0.7	8.2	–12.8
Men	7.3	7.3	–0.4	8.3	–12.3
Women	7.0	7.1	–1.1	8.0	–13.4
15 to 24-year olds	9.3	9.3	–0.7	11.0	–15.4
25 to 74-year olds	6.8	6.9	–0.7	7.8	–12.2

For further information please contact:
For “employment”:
Stephan Lüken,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2016,
For “unemployment”:
Dr. Martina Rengers,
tel: (+49-611) 75-4271,

E-mail: arbeitsmarkt@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
www.destatis.de

Service hours:
Mon - Tue: 8am - 5pm
Fri: 8am - 3pm
CET / CEST

Postal address:
65180 Wiesbaden
Germany

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