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Press release No.438 / 2009-11-19


3rd quarter of 2009: Employment declining by 0.2% on a year earlier


WIESBADEN – According to provisional results of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the number of persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany amounted to about 40.4 million in the third quarter of 2009, which was a decline of about 81,000 persons or 0.2% on a year earlier. Compared with the same period a year earlier, the number of persons in employment declined for the first time since the third quarter of 2005.
 
Compared with the previous quarter, a seasonal increase in employment was recorded, which was typical for the time after the summer break. However, the increase in employment in the third quarter on the second quarter of 2009 (+149,000 persons or +0.4%) was by some 50% smaller than the average increase recorded for the corresponding periods over the past three years (+289,000 persons).
 
Upon seasonal adjustment, that is the elimination of seasonal fluctuations, the number of persons in employment in the third quarter of 2009 decreased on the previous quarter by 30,000 persons (–0.1%).
 
The development by economic sectors shows different employment trends on the previous year: While a decrease was recorded for industry (including energy), an increase was observed for services and agriculture. In construction, the number of persons in employment in the third quarter of 2009 (some 2.2 million) was about as high as in the third quarter of 2008. In the service sector (consisting of trade, hotels and restaurants, transport, financial intermediation, renting and business services as well as other service activities), the number of persons in employment was up by 185,000 or 0.6% in the third quarter of 2009 compared with a year earlier, following an increase of 150,000 persons or 0.5% in the second quarter of 2009. In agriculture, forestry and fishing, the number of persons in employment in the third quarter of 2009 grew by 8,000 or 0.9% on a year earlier (second quarter of 2009: +16,000 persons or +1.8%). In industry (including energy), the number of persons in employment was down by 275,000 or 3.4% in the third quarter of 2009 on a year earlier (second quarter of 2009: –54,000 persons or –0.7%). This was the steepest decline in the number of persons in employment in industry compared to the same period of a year earlier since 1994 (–4.7%).
 

The number of employees in the third quarter of 2009 declined by 76,000 (–0.2%) to 35.9 million persons. The number of self-employed including family workers decreased on the previous year by 5,000 (–0.1%) to some 4.4 million persons.
 
According to first provisional results of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA), the average number of hours worked per person in employment was down by 3.3% to 351.5 hours in the third quarter of 2009 on a year earlier. A major reason was the fact that the opportunity of short-time working continued to be used to a large extent. The total number of hours worked, that is the number of persons in employment multiplied by hours worked per person in employment, was down by 3.5% to 14.2 billion hours.
 
In addition to the first calculation of the number of persons in employment and of the number of hours worked for the third quarter of 2009, the results published so far (starting with the first quarter of 2009) were revised as part of the regular revision of national accounts. At the level of the overall economy, revising the quarterly employment data resulted in year-on-year change rates for the first and the second quarter of this year which are by 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points, respectively, higher compared to the previous calculation.
 
Persons in employment whose place of employment is in Germany
and hours worked 1)
 
Year,
quarter
Persons in
employ­ment,
total
Agricul-
ture,
forestry
and
fishing
Industry,
including
energy
Construc-
tion
Service
activities 2)
Hours worked 3)
per
person in employment
by
persons in employment
Persons in 1,000
Hours
mn hours
 
1) For persons in employment: Annual and quarterly averages.
2) Trade, hotel and restaurant services, transport, financial, renting and business activities, other service activities.
3) Source: Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (Institute for Employment Research) of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency), Nuremberg.
200538,8358537,8942,17927,9091,434,155,693
200639,0758377,8262,17428,2381,429,555,858
200739,7248507,9112,20928,7541,431,056,845
200840,2798608,0302,19329,1961,429,657,583
20071st quarter39,1167847,8342,15128,347368,614,418
2nd quarter39,5948717,8642,20428,655340,213,470
3rd quarter39,8868887,9352,24028,823362,114,443
4th quarter40,3008538,0142,24229,191360,214,516
20081st quarter39,7648017,9802,13528,848365,314,526
2nd quarter40,1808778,0082,18529,110345,213,870
3rd quarter40,4338948,0502,22429,265363,614,701
4th quarter40,7338648,0842,22829,557355,514,481
20091st quarter39,9478087,9242,13329,082352,814,093
2nd quarter40,2038867,8292,18829,300327,313,158
3rd quarter40,3529027,7752,22529,450351,514,184
Change in % on the corresponding period of the previous year
20060.6–1.9–0.9–0.21.2–0.30.3
20071.71.61.11.61.80.11.8
20081.41.21.5–0.71.5–0.11.3
20071st quarter1.80.80.75.11.90.42.2
2nd quarter1.71.40.92.01.80.32.0
3rd quarter1.61.61.20.11.80.01.6
4th quarter1.61.91.4–0.61.9–0.31.4
20081st quarter1.72.21.9–0.71.8–0.90.7
2nd quarter1.50.71.8– 0.91.61.53.0
3rd quarter1.40.71.4–0.71.50.41.8
4th quarter1.11.30.9–0.61.3–1.3–0.2
20091st quarter 0.50.9–0.7–0.10.8–3.4–3.0
2nd quarter 0.11.0–2.20.10.7–5.2–5.1
3rd quarter–0.20.9–3.40.00.6–3.3–3.5

 
The current national accounts data on employment by quarters and years are available on the Destatis website.

>>> Brief methodological description employment

>>> Brief methodological description hours worked


For further information please call:
Ulf-Karsten Keil,
tel: +49 611 75 2633,



 




For more details please refer to the German version.


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© Federal Statistical Office of Germany
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Version: 2.25.5 / 20.10.2008