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Press release No.432 / 2008-11-18


3rd quarter of 2008: New employment peak


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 40.5 million in the third quarter of 2008, which was by 582,000 persons or 1.5% more than a year earlier. Hence the number of persons in employment exceeded the previous peak level reached in the 4th quarter of 2007 (about 40.3 million persons). However, the employment increase in the reference quarter was slightly smaller than in the second quarter of 2008 when the number of persons in employment rose by 598,000 compared with a year earlier.

The employment gains from the second to the third quarter of 2008 amounted to +273,000 persons or +0.7%, which was just slightly less than the strong quarter-on-quarter gains observed a year earlier (third quarter of 2007 on second quarter of 2007: +289,000 persons or +0.7%, too). Upon seasonal adjustment, that is the elimination of seasonal fluctuations, the number of persons in employment in the third quarter of 2008 rose by 103,000 persons (+0.3%) compared with the previous quarter. While, from an overall economic point of view, a short-term economic downturn is currently observed, employment hence continued its altogether positive trend in the reference quarter, according to all data available.
 
Examining the development by economic sectors shows that job growth in the secondary sector slowed down in the third quarter of 2008, whereas it slightly accelerated in the tertiary sector. The year-on-year growth in the number of persons in employment in the industry (including energy) in the third quarter of 2008 (+108,000 persons or +1.4%) was smaller than in the previous quarter (second quarter of 2008: +131,000 persons or +1.7%), whereas in construction (–22,000 persons or –1.0%) more jobs were lost than in the second quarter of 2008 (–18,000 persons or –0.8%). Employment in the service branches, however, showed a very solid overall trend (+492,000 persons or +1.7% on a year earlier). The year-on-year difference was slightly up here (second quarter of 2008: +480,000 persons or +1.7%).
In the primary sector (agriculture and forestry), on balance, the number of jobs created was roughly the same as in the previous quarter (third quarter of 2008: +4,000 persons or +0.5%, second quarter of 2008: +5,000 persons or +0.6%).

The overall year-on-year rise in employment was largely due to an increase in the number of employees, which in the third quarter of 2008 was up by 574,000 persons (+1.6%) to 36.0 million. The number of self-employed including family workers increased slightly by 8,000 persons (+0.2%) 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.

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 third quarter of 2008 was up 0.1% to 363.0 hours on a year earlier. One of the reasons was that in the third quarter of 2008 one working day more was 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 1.5% to 14.7 billion hours.

In addition to the first calculation of the number of persons in employment and of the number of hours worked for the third quarter of 2008, the results published so far have been revised as part of the regular revisions of national accounts, starting with the first quarter of 2008. At the level of the overall economy, revising the quarterly results resulted in a need for change of a maximum of 0.1% for the employment figures compared with the previous state of computation.

The current national accounts data on employment by quarters and years are available on the Destatis website.

>>> Brief methodological description employment

>>> Brief methodological description hours worked
 
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
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.
Persons in 1,000Hoursmillion hours
200538,8518537,8902,18527,9231,434.055,712
200639,0978267,8222,17728,2721,431.755,975
200739,7688457,9102,21228,8011,433.457,003
20063rd 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 quarter39,8158007,9672,13928,909366.014,572
2nd quarter40,2358727,9952,18829,180345.513,901
3rd quarter40,5088868,0422,22129,359363.014,704
Change in % on the corresponding period of the previous year
2005–0.1–2.3–1.6–3.10.7–0.5–0.6
20060.6–3.2–0.9–0.41.2–0.20.5
20071.72.31.11.61.90.11.8
20063rd 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 quarter1.72.31.7–0.61.8–0.90.8
2nd quarter1.50.61.7–0.81.71.42.9
3rd quarter1.50.51.4–1.01.70.11.5


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



 




For more details please refer to the German version.


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© Federal Statistical Office of Germany
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Version: 2.25.5 / 20.10.2008