Press release No.129 / 2009-03-31

February 2009: Employment falling back almost to previous year’s level

WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on the basis of first provisional calculations for February 2009, the number of persons in employment living in Germanyamounted to 39.81 million. That was an increase by 31,000 persons or 0.1% on February 2008. Hence, the employment gains of last year have nearly been offset by the monthly decreases that have been continuing since November.

Compared with January 2009, the number of persons in employment was down by 14,000 persons. That decrease, which seems moderate considering the economic crisis, are put into perspective when taking into account the average trend of employment figures in any February of the last ten years. On average, there was an increase of 40,000 persons in employment. Apart from the short-term economic trend, the relatively cold weather this winter probably had a negative impact on the development. However, the provisions on short-time work probably had a slowdown effect on the decrease.

A negative employment trend is also shown when eliminating the typical seasonal variations. Compared with the previous month, the seasonally adjusted result decreased by 13,000 to 40.20 million persons in employment in February 2009.

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 3.18 million in February 2009. Compared with February 2008, unemployment was down by a seasonally adjusted 80,000 persons or 2.5%. Compared with January 2009, the seasonally adjusted number of unemployed rose by 1.1%. 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 7.4% in Germany and was thus below the level of the corresponding month of the previous year (7.6%).

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 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	February	39.781	0.2	1.7	40.169	0.2
	March	39.935	0.4	1.7	40.225	0.1
	April	40.087	0.4	1.6	40.241	0.0
	May	40.192	0.3	1.5	40.238	0.0
	June	40.236	0.1	1.5	40.255	0.0
	July	40.210	–0.1	1.6	40.296	0.1
	August	40.289	0.2	1.5	40.314	0.0
	September	40.600	0.8	1.4	40.334	0.0
	October	40.797	0.5	1.2	40.346	0.0
	November	40.776	–0.1	1.1	40.329	0.0
	December	40.530	–0.6	0.9	40.298	–0.1
2009	January	39.826	–1.7	0.3	40.214	–0.2
2009	February	39.812	0.0	0.1	40.201	0.0

Unemployed persons whose place of residence is in Germany – seasonally adjusted results ³⁾
Unemployed	February 2009	Previous month		Same month of previous year
Unemployed	February 2009	January 2009	change	February 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	3.18	3.14	1.1	3.26	–2.5
Men	1.77	1.74	3.0	1.72	2.7
Women	1.41	1.40	0.3	1.54	–8.5
15 to 24-year olds	0.54	0.53	2.1	0.53	0.9
25 to 74-year olds	2.64	2.62	0.8	2.73	–3.3
Unemployment rate ⁴⁾	Shares in %		in %	Shares in %	in %
Total	7.4	7.3	1.0	7.6	–2.4
Men	7.7	7.6	1.6	7.5	2.9
Women	7.0	7.0	0.3	7.6	–8.5
15 to 24-year olds	10.2	10.0	2.0	10.1	1.3
25 to 74-year olds	7.0	6.9	0.8	7.2	–3.2

>>> Brief methodological description

For further information please contact:
For “employment”:
Christoph-Martin Mai,
tel: (+49-611) 75-3378,

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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