Press release No.003 / 2009-01-07

Employment growth slowing down

WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on the basis of first calculations for November 2008, the number of persons in employment living in Germany amounted to 40.83 million. Although the number of persons in employment in November 2008 was up by 500,000 persons on the same month a year earlier, the relative increase (+1.2%) was the lowest rate since December 2006. In January 2008, the relative increase compared with a year earlier was by half a percentage point higher (+1.7%). So the economic downturn is beginning to show on the labour market, too.

Compared with October 2008, 12,000 more persons who had their place of residence in Germanywere in employment. In the November months of 2005 to 2007, the number of persons in employment in Germanyincreased by an average 53,000 in a month-on-month comparison. That can be considered as another indication of a slowdown of the growth in the number of persons in employment.

After eliminating the typical seasonal variations, the number of persons in employment amounted to 40.41 million in November 2008. Against October 2008, that was a seasonally adjusted increase by 19,000 persons.

Beyond the first calculation of the number of persons in employment for reference month November 2008, the monthly 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 less than 0.1% 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 3.08 million in November 2008. Compared with November 2007, unemployment was down by a seasonally adjusted 360,000 persons or 10.6%. 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 (8.0%).

More results, including among other things 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.

>>> Brief methodological description

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
		in million	in %		in million	in %
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.
2007	October	40.297	0.6	1.8	39.872	0.2
	November	40.332	0.1	1.7	39.910	0.1
	December	40.179	–0.4	1.6	39.954	0.1
2008	January	39.719	–1.1	1.7	40.086	0.3
	February	39.781	0.2	1.7	40.149	0.2
	March	39.935	0.4	1.7	40.212	0.2
	April	40.087	0.4	1.6	40.230	0.0
	May	40.192	0.3	1.5	40.230	0.0
	June	40.236	0.1	1.5	40.251	0.1
	July	40.203	–0.1	1.5	40.294	0.1
	August	40.298	0.2	1.5	40.328	0.1
	September	40.611	0.8	1.4	40.359	0.1
	October	40.820	0.5	1.3	40.393	0.1
	November	40.832	0.0	1.2	40.412	0.0

Unemployed persons whose place of residence is in Germany – seasonally adjusted results ³⁾
Unemployed	November 2008	Previous month		Same month of previous year
Unemployed	November 2008	October 2008	change	November 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	3.08	3.08	–0.1	3.44	–10.6
Men	1.68	1.68	0.2	1.86	–9.4
Women	1.39	1.40	–0.6	1.58	–11.9
15 to 24-year olds	0.50	0.50	1.0	0.57	–11.0
25 to 74-year olds	2.57	2.58	–0.3	2.87	–10.5
Unemployment rate ⁴⁾	Shares in %		in %	Shares in %	in %
Total	7.1	7.1	–0.1	8.0	–10.9
Men	7.3	7.3	0.2	8.1	–9.8
Women	6.9	7.0	–0.5	7.9	–12.0
15 to 24-year olds	9.6	9.5	0.9	10.8	–10.5
25 to 74-year olds	6.8	6.8	–0.3	7.6	–10.9

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

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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