Press release No.240 / 2009-06-30

May 2009: Labour market upturn in spring is weak this year

WIESBADEN – According to provisional results of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the number of persons in employment living in Germanyamounted to 40.05 million in May 2009. Compared with a year earlier, that was a decrease by 147,000 persons (–0.4%).

Compared with April 2009, the number of persons in employment in May was up by 88,000 persons (+0.2%). As in the previous month, a slight upturn of the labour market in spring is recorded which, however, is weaker than in the previous years. On an average of the years 2007 and 2008, the number of persons in employment rose by 122,000 from April to May. The less favourable employment trend this year must be considered in the context of the currently weak overall economic situation. Probably, the utilisation of short-term work again reduced the negative effects of the short-term economic trend on employment.

When seasonally adjusted, that is when eliminating the typical seasonal variations, the number of persons in employment in Germanywas 40.11 million in May 2009. That was a seasonally adjusted decrease by 14,000 persons on April.

More monthly results, including the number of unemployed according to an internationally comparable concept, 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	January	39.719	–1.1	1.7	40.097	0.4
	February	39.781	0.2	1.7	40.154	0.1
	March	39.935	0.4	1.7	40.222	0.2
	April	40.087	0.4	1.6	40.253	0.1
	May	40.192	0.3	1.5	40.250	0.0
	June	40.236	0.1	1.5	40.258	0.0
	July	40.210	–0.1	1.6	40.299	0.1
	August	40.289	0.2	1.5	40.316	0.0
	September	40.600	0.8	1.4	40.335	0.0
	October	40.797	0.5	1.2	40.347	0.0
	November	40.776	–0.1	1.1	40.330	0.0
	December	40.530	–0.6	0.9	40.297	–0.1
2009	January	39.849	–1.7	0.3	40.221	–0.2
	February	39.836	0.0	0.1	40.203	0.0
	March	39.889	0.1	–0.1	40.168	–0.1
	April	39.957	0.2	–0.3	40.122	–0.1
	May	40.045	0.2	–0.4	40.108	0.0

>>> Brief methodological description

For further information please call:
Stephan Lüken,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2016,

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

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Postal address:
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Germany

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