Press release No. 196 of 3 June 2020
Persons in employment resident in Germany, April 2020
-0.5% on the same month a year earlier
-0.4% on the previous month
-0.6% on the previous month (seasonally adjusted)
WIESBADEN – Roughly 44.8 million persons resident in Germany (national concept) were in employment in April 2020 according to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Compared with April 2019, the number of persons in employment decreased by 0.5% (-210,000). This means that for the first time since March 2010 the number of persons in employment decreased year on year (-92,000; -0.2%). In March 2020, the year-on-year change rate had been +0.2%.
No spring upturn
The measures taken since the second half of March to contain the corona pandemic have had marked effects on the labour market. According to provisional results of the employment accounts, the number of persons in employment fell by 161,000 in April 2020 on the previous month. Normally, employment rises strongly in April as a result of the usual spring upturn, that is, by 143,000 in April on an average of the last five years. This year, however, an unusually large decrease is recorded instead of an increase. After seasonal adjustment, that is, after the elimination of the usual seasonal fluctuations, the number of persons in employment decreased by 271,000 (-0.6%) in April 2020 compared with March 2020.
It should be noted that according to the employment account and labour force survey concepts, short-time workers are not counted as unemployed persons but as persons in employment. Due to the corona pandemic, estimating the numbers of persons in employment and of unemployed at present involves higher uncertainty than usual. Data collection problems also have an impact on the estimation of unemployment figures (see methodological notes).
Number of unemployed markedly up
Results of the labour force survey show that 1.89 million people were unemployed in April 2020. That was an increase of 220,000, or 13.2%, on March 2020. Compared with April 2019, the number of unemployed persons increased by 515,000 or +38.0%. The unemployment rate was 4.3% in April 2020.
| Year | Month | Original values | Seasonally adjusted 2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| persons | change on previous month | change on the same month of the previous year | persons | change on previous month | ||
| millions | % | millions | % | |||
| 1 Results of employment accounts as part of national accounting: persons in employment whose place of residence is in Germany (national concept). The respective time series for persons in employment whose place of work is in Germany (domestic concept) are presented here. 2 Seasonal adjustment by X13-ARIMA method using JDemetra+. | ||||||
| 2017 | January | 43.584 | -0.8 | 1.4 | 43.854 | 0.0 |
| February | 43.657 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 43.901 | 0.1 | |
| March | 43.792 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 43.966 | 0.1 | |
| April | 43.929 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 43.998 | 0.1 | |
| May | 44.038 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 44.041 | 0.1 | |
| June | 44.104 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 44.110 | 0.2 | |
| July | 44.132 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 44.162 | 0.1 | |
| August | 44.164 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 44.207 | 0.1 | |
| September | 44.436 | 0.6 | 1.3 | 44.256 | 0.1 | |
| October | 44.529 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 44.287 | 0.1 | |
| November | 44.634 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 44.349 | 0.1 | |
| December | 44.528 | -0.2 | 1.3 | 44.412 | 0.1 | |
| 2018 | January | 44.244 | -0.6 | 1.5 | 44.501 | 0.2 |
| February | 44.296 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 44.529 | 0.1 | |
| March | 44.393 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 44.565 | 0.1 | |
| April | 44.538 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 44.606 | 0.1 | |
| May | 44.657 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 44.661 | 0.1 | |
| June | 44.675 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 44.687 | 0.1 | |
| July | 44.695 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 44.731 | 0.1 | |
| August | 44.737 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 44.785 | 0.1 | |
| September | 44.967 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 44.793 | 0.0 | |
| October | 45.078 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 44.840 | 0.1 | |
| November | 45.179 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 44.893 | 0.1 | |
| December | 45.056 | -0.3 | 1.2 | 44.936 | 0.1 | |
| 2019 | January | 44.742 | -0.7 | 1.1 | 44.985 | 0.1 |
| February | 44.802 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 45.024 | 0.1 | |
| March | 44.878 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 45.052 | 0.1 | |
| April | 45.011 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 45.079 | 0.1 | |
| May | 45.075 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 45.081 | 0.0 | |
| June | 45.057 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 45.076 | 0.0 | |
| July | 45.057 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 45.096 | 0.0 | |
| August | 45.038 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 45.089 | 0.0 | |
| September | 45.281 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 45.113 | 0.1 | |
| October | 45.376 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 45.140 | 0.1 | |
| November | 45.429 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 45.143 | 0.0 | |
| December | 45.276 | -0.3 | 0.5 | 45.155 | 0.0 | |
| 2020 | January | 44.938 | -0.7 | 0.4 | 45.171 | 0.0 |
| February | 44.958 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 45.172 | 0.0 | |
| March | 44.962 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 45.137 | -0.1 | |
| April | 44.801 | -0.4 | -0.5 | 44.866 | -0.6 | |
| April 2020 2 | Previous month | Same month of the previous year | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2020 2 | change | April 2019 | change | ||
| 1 Persons in households aged 15 to 74 years. 2 Share of unemployed in the labour force (persons in employment and unemployed) aged 15 to 74 years. 3 Share of persons in employment in all persons aged 15 to 74 years. 4 Trend cycle component (X-13-ARIMA method using JDemetra+; calculation by Eurostat 5 Estimation based on the previous period due to limited data collection. | |||||
| Unadjusted values | |||||
| millions | % | millions | % | ||
| Unemployed persons | 1.89 | 1.67 | 13.2 | 1.37 | 38.0 |
| Persons in employment | 42.09 | 42.39 | -0.7 | 41.61 | 1.2 |
| percentage shares | % | percentage shares | % | ||
| Unemployment rate 3 | 4.3 | 3.8 | 13.2 | 3.2 | 34.4 |
| Employment rate 4 | 67.6 | 68.1 | -0.7 | 67.6 | 0.0 |
| Adjusted results 5 | |||||
| millions | % | millions | % | ||
| Unemployed persons | 1.57 | 1.54 | 1.9 | 1.36 | 15.4 |
| Persons in employment | 42.73 | 42.74 | 0.0 | 42.04 | 1.6 |
| percentage shares | percentage points | percentage shares | percentage points | ||
| Unemployment rate 3 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 0.0 | 3.1 | 0.4 |
| Men | 3.9 | 3.8 | 0.1 | 3.4 | 0.5 |
| Women | 3.2 | 3.1 | 0.1 | 2.8 | 0.4 |
| Persons aged under 25 years | 5.3 | 5.3 | 0.0 | 5.7 | -0.4 |
| Persons aged 25 to 74 years | 3.4 | 3.3 | 0.1 | 2.8 | 0.6 |
| Employment rate 4 | 68.7 | 68.7 | 0.0 | 68.3 | 0.4 |
Detailed data and long time series are available from the GENESIS-Online database. The data on persons in employment from employment accounts are available in tables 13321-0001 (months) and 13321-0002 (quarters) and 81000-0011 (years). Data on persons in employment and unemployed persons from the labour force survey can be found in tables 13231-0001 to 13231-0003 (months)
Methodological notes:
The number of persons in employment from the employment accounts differs from that of the labour force survey. The differences are due to the different conceptual approaches (national or domestic concept) applied in the two statistical systems. For more information on the reasons why the results of the labour force survey differ from those of the employment accounts please refer to the explanatory notes on the statistics
Persons in employment and unemployed persons are counted according to the employment status concept of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Therefore, unemployment as shown here must not be confused with registered unemployment as published by the Federal Employment Agency in accordance with the German Social Code. In the European Statistical System, the results of the labour force survey are used as a standard basis for calculating unemployment rates.
The microcensus and the integrated labour force survey were redesigned both in technical and in methodological terms; the new approach was introduced at the beginning of 2020. For technical reasons, data collection has been limited since the beginning of this year. Therefore, the results as from January 2020 were determined by means of an estimate based on the results for the previous period, considering current developments.
Adjusting the original values from the labour force survey is done by means of trend estimation (Wirtschaft und Statistik, only in german language). This means that the time series is adjusted not only for regular seasonal fluctuations but also for irregular, i.e. random or methodological fluctuations. Normally, unemployment decreases in April as a result of the usual spring upturn. This year, however, an unusually large increase in the number of unemployed persons is recorded in April, instead of a decrease, which is due to the effects of the corona pandemic. As this short-term increase is considered as an irregular event, the values adjusted by means of trend estimation do not reflect the marked increase observed in the unadjusted values (cf. Table II “Unemployed persons and persons in employment”).
