Press release No.065 / 2009-02-26

Employment fell markedly at the beginning of the year

WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on the basis of first calculations, the number of persons in employment whose place of residence was in Germanyamounted to 39.83 million in January 2009. Hence, the number of persons in employment fell below the 40 million threshold again for the first time since March 2008. In January 2009, employment exceeded the level of the same month a year earlier by 107 000 persons or 0.3%.

In January 2009, the number of persons in employment dropped markedly from the previous month. Compared with December 2008, 1.7% or 704 000 less persons were in employment whose place of residence was in Germany. Typically, a considerable decline in the number of persons in employment is recorded for the month of January. At the beginning of the years 2007 and 2008, that is during the economic upswing, the number of persons in employment dropped by nearly half a million. Due to the rather adverse economic development, the decline was stronger at the beginning of 2009 than in the two previous years. It has to be assumed that – in addition to the short-term economic trend – the relatively cold weather conditions this winter have had an additional negative effect on the development, while the regulations concerning short-time work probably had a mitigating effect on the employment decline.
After elimination of the typical seasonal variations, the number of persons in employment amounted to 40.21 million in January 2009. Compared with the preceding month of December, that was a seasonally adjusted decline by 84 000 persons.

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 3.16 million in January 2009. When compared with the same month a year earlier, i.e. January 2008, the number of unemployed persons was by 170 000 or 5.0% lower, after seasonal adjustment. Compared with the preceding month of December 2008, the seasonally adjusted number of unemployed persons rose by 1.3%. 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 a seasonally adjusted 7.3% for Germany and was hence still notably below the corresponding figure of the same month a year earlier (7.7%).

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
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 %
2008	January	39.719	–1.1	1.7	40.106	0.4
	February	39.781	0.2	1.7	40.169	0.2
	March	39.935	0.4	1.7	40.228	0.1
	April	40.087	0.4	1.6	40.244	0.0
	May	40.192	0.3	1.5	40.240	0.0
	June	40.236	0.1	1.5	40.256	0.0
	July	40.210	–0.1	1.6	40.297	0.1
	August	40.289	0.2	1.5	40.315	0.0
	September	40.600	0.8	1.4	40.333	0.0
	October	40.797	0.5	1.2	40.344	0.0
	November	40.776	–0.1	1.1	40.327	0.0
	December	40.530	–0.6	0.9	40.295	–0.1
2009	January	39.826	–1.7	0.3	40.211	–0.2

Unemployed persons whose place of residence is in Germany – seasonally adjusted results ³⁾
Unemployed	January 2009	Previous month		Same month of previous year
Unemployed	January 2009	December 2008	change	January 2008	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	3.16	3.12	1.3	3.33	–5.0
Men	1.75	1.72	2.0	1.78	–1.4
Women	1.41	1.40	0.6	1.55	–9.1
15 to 24-year olds	0.54	0.53	2.5	0.54	–0.9
25 to 74-year olds	2.62	2.59	1.1	2.78	–5.8
Unemployment rate ⁴⁾	Shares in %		in %	Shares in %	in %
Total	7.3	7.2	1.4	7.7	–4.9
Men	7.6	7.5	2.0	7.7	–1.3
Women	7.0	7.0	0.7	7.7	–8.9
15 to 24-year olds	10.2	10.0	2.2	10.3	–1.2
25 to 74-year olds	6.9	6.8	1.2	7.3	–5.6

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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