Press release No.034 / 2009-01-29

Economic downturn affecting the labour market

WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on the basis of first calculations for December 2008, the number of persons in employment living in Germany amounted to 40.53 million. That was an increase by 351,000 persons or 0.9% on December 2007. In July 2008, the number of persons in employment rose by 1.6% on the same month a year earlier. Since that time, the relative difference compared with a year earlier has decreased every month. So the economic crisis has had a growing effect on the labour market.

Compared with November 2008, 246,000 fewer persons who had their place of residence in Germanywere in employment. A decrease of that number from November to December is not unusual, but its volume in 2008 was larger than in other years. After eliminating the typical seasonal variations, the number of persons in employment amounted to 40.33 million in December 2008. Against November 2008, that was a seasonally adjusted decrease by 24,000 persons. It is assumed that this trend is not only due to the relatively cold weather but also to the weaker overall economic situation.

Generally, the results of the first provisional calculations – like the results for reference month December presented here – are based on incomplete data. In order to allow nevertheless early publication of current data, the data gaps in employment accounts – as in other areas of national accounts – are bridged by applying statistical and econometric estimation methods. Experience shows that such estimates allow obtaining very reliable results. However, in the current short-term economic phase, which is characterised by rapid and drastic changes in all economic areas, the estimates involve larger uncertainties than usual.

Beyond the calculation of the number of persons in employment for reference month December 2008, the previously published results were revised back to July 2008 as new employment statistics information has become available. The recalculations required correcting the level of the annual average result for 2008, which was published on 2 January 2009, by –20,000 (–0.05%). For some months, differences of up to –0.3% occurred, compared with the previous position of computations.

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 3.09 million in December 2008. Compared with December 2007, unemployment was down by a seasonally adjusted 300,000 persons or 8.8%. Compared with November 2008, the seasonally adjusted number of unemployed rose by 0.3%. 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 7.2% in Germany and was thus considerably below the level of the corresponding month of the previous year (7.9%), but slightly higher than the result for November 2008 (7.1%).

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.

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	November	40.332	0.1	1.7	39.906	0.1
2007	December	40.179	–0.4	1.6	39.964	0.1
2008	January	39.719	–1.1	1.7	40.093	0.3
	February	39.781	0.2	1.7	40.154	0.2
	March	39.935	0.4	1.7	40.216	0.2
	April	40.087	0.4	1.6	40.234	0.0
	May	40.192	0.3	1.5	40.232	0.0
	June	40.236	0.1	1.5	40.250	0.0
	July	40.210	–0.1	1.6	40.293	0.1
	August	40.289	0.2	1.5	40.314	0.1
	September	40.600	0.8	1.4	40.338	0.1
	October	40.797	0.5	1.2	40.358	0.0
	November	40.776	–0.1	1.1	40.351	0.0
	December	40.530	–0.6	0.9	40.327	–0.1

Unemployed persons whose place of residence is in Germany – seasonally adjusted results ³⁾
Unemployed	December 2008	Previous month		Same month of previous year
Unemployed	December 2008	November 2008	change	December 2007	change
Persons	in million		in %	in million	in %
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.
Total	3.09	3.08	0.3	3.39	–8.8
Men	1.70	1.69	1.0	1.83	–6.9
Women	1.39	1.40	–0.2	1.57	–11.1
15 to 24-year olds	0.52	0.51	2.0	0.56	–6.3
25 to 74-year olds	2.57	2.57	0.0	2.84	–9.3
Unemployment rate ⁴⁾	Shares in %		in %	Shares in %	in %
Total	7.2	7.1	0.3	7.9	–8.9
Men	7.4	7.3	0.8	8.0	–7.0
Women	6.9	6.9	–0.2	7.8	–11.1
15 to 24-year olds	9.9	9.7	1.8	10.6	–6.4
25 to 74-year olds	6.8	6.8	0.0	7.5	–9.4

>>> 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

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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