Press release No. 379 of 30 September 2020
Persons in employment resident in Germany, August 2020
0.0% on the previous month (seasonally adjusted)
0.0% on the previous month
-1.1% on the same month a year earlier
WIESBADEN – Roughly 44.6 million people resident in Germany (national concept) were in employment in August 2020 according to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The number of persons in employment rose slightly, that is, a seasonally adjusted 21,000 people, or 0.0%, in August 2020 on the previous month. However, the number of persons in employment remains markedly below pre-crisis level. The number of persons in employment in August 2020 was a seasonally adjusted 1.2%, or 565,000 people, down on February 2020, the month before restrictions were imposed due to the corona pandemic in Germany.
Without seasonal adjustment, too, the number of persons in employment in August 2020 rose slightly on the previous month, that is, by 12,000 people, or 0.0%. This month-on-month development is below the relevant average for August in the past five years (+28,000 people).
Year-on-year decrease in employment continues to slow
Compared with August 2019, the number of persons in employment decreased by 1.1% (-495,000). The decrease in the number of persons in employment on the same month a year earlier thus slowed slightly again. In June and July 2020, the year-on-year change rates had been -1.3% and -1.2%, respectively. In the pre-crisis month of February 2020, employment had increased by 0.4% (+184,000 people) on a year earlier. That upward trend ended when the corona pandemic started in March 2020.
When considering these results, it should be noted that, according to the employment accounts and labour force survey concepts, short-time workers are not counted as unemployed but as persons in employment.
Unemployment rate was 4.6% in August 2020
Results of the labour force survey show that 2.02 million people were unemployed in August 2020. That was an increase of 35,000, or 2.0%, compared with July 2020. Compared with August 2019, the number of unemployed persons increased by 621,000 or +44.3%. The unemployment rate was 4.6% in August 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 | 43.595 | -0.8 | 1.4 | 43.857 | 0.0 |
| February | 43.668 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 43.904 | 0.1 | |
| March | 43.805 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 43.977 | 0.2 | |
| April | 43.942 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 44.011 | 0.1 | |
| May | 44.051 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 44.057 | 0.1 | |
| June | 44.118 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 44.132 | 0.2 | |
| July | 44.146 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 44.181 | 0.1 | |
| August | 44.178 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 44.224 | 0.1 | |
| September | 44.451 | 0.6 | 1.3 | 44.275 | 0.1 | |
| October | 44.544 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 44.304 | 0.1 | |
| November | 44.648 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 44.363 | 0.1 | |
| December | 44.543 | -0.2 | 1.3 | 44.422 | 0.1 | |
| 2018 | January | 44.266 | -0.6 | 1.5 | 44.509 | 0.2 |
| February | 44.317 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 44.534 | 0.1 | |
| March | 44.411 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 44.581 | 0.1 | |
| April | 44.554 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 44.624 | 0.1 | |
| May | 44.673 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 44.684 | 0.1 | |
| June | 44.690 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 44.719 | 0.1 | |
| July | 44.709 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 44.751 | 0.1 | |
| August | 44.754 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 44.806 | 0.1 | |
| September | 44.981 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 44.812 | 0.0 | |
| October | 45.094 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 44.860 | 0.1 | |
| November | 45.195 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 44.909 | 0.1 | |
| December | 45.072 | -0.3 | 1.2 | 44.945 | 0.1 | |
| 2019 | January | 44.773 | -0.7 | 1.1 | 44.995 | 0.1 |
| February | 44.836 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 45.034 | 0.1 | |
| March | 44.912 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 45.085 | 0.1 | |
| April | 45.046 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 45.118 | 0.1 | |
| May | 45.110 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 45.124 | 0.0 | |
| June | 45.092 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 45.138 | 0.0 | |
| July | 45.093 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 45.140 | 0.0 | |
| August | 45.077 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 45.132 | 0.0 | |
| September | 45.321 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 45.157 | 0.1 | |
| October | 45.411 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 45.177 | 0.0 | |
| November | 45.473 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 45.185 | 0.0 | |
| December | 45.327 | -0.3 | 0.6 | 45.197 | 0.0 | |
| 2020 | January | 45.005 | -0.7 | 0.5 | 45.213 | 0.0 |
| February | 45.020 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 45.205 | 0.0 | |
| March | 44.926 | -0.2 | 0.0 | 45.100 | -0.2 | |
| April | 44.652 | -0.6 | -0.9 | 44.722 | -0.8 | |
| May | 44.541 | -0.2 | -1.3 | 44.558 | -0.4 | |
| June | 44.506 | -0.1 | -1.3 | 44.564 | 0.0 | |
| July | 44.570 | 0.1 | -1.2 | 44.619 | 0.1 | |
| August | 44.582 | 0.0 | -1.1 | 44.640 | 0.0 | |
| August 2020 2 | Previous month | Same month of the previous year | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2020 2 | change | August 2019 | change | ||
| 1 Persons in households aged 15 to 74 years. 2 Estimation based on the previous period due to limited data collection. 3 Share of unemployed in the labour force (persons in employment and unemployed) aged 15 to 74 years. 4 Share of persons in employment in all persons aged 15 to 74 years. 5 Trend cycle component (X-13-ARIMA method using JDemetra+. calculation by Eurostat | |||||
| Unadjusted values | |||||
| millions | % | millions | % | ||
| Unemployed persons | 2.02 | 1.98 | 2.0 | 1.40 | 44.3 |
| Persons in employment | 42.15 | 42.15 | 0.0 | 42.38 | -0.5 |
| percentage shares | % | percentage shares | % | ||
| Unemployment rate 3 | 4.6 | 4.5 | 2.2 | 3.2 | 43.8 |
| Employment rate 4 | 67.9 | 67.8 | 0.1 | 68.4 | -0.7 |
| Adjusted results 5 | |||||
| millions | % | millions | % | ||
| Unemployed persons | 1.96 | 1.95 | 0.5 | 1.32 | 48.5 |
| Persons in employment | 42.25 | 42.26 | 0.0 | 42.31 | -0.1 |
| percentage shares | percentage points | percentage shares | percentage points | ||
| Unemployment rate 3 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 1.4 |
| 4.4 | 4.4 | 0.0 | 3.4 | 1.0 | |
| Men | 4.5 | 4.4 | 0.1 | 2.5 | 2.0 |
| Women | 5.8 | 5.9 | -0.1 | 5.6 | 0.2 |
| Persons aged under 25 years | 4.3 | 4.3 | 0.0 | 2.7 | 1.6 |
| Persons aged 25 to 74 years | 68.0 | 68.0 | 0.0 | 68.3 | -0.3 |
| Employment rate 4 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 1.4 |
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 differing comparative periods must be taken into account in all press releases on short-term indicators. Short-term economic monitoring focuses on comparisons with the previous month or previous quarter. These reflect short-term economic trends. A comparison with the previous year is intended to offer a long-term comparison of levels and is not subject to seasonal fluctuations. During the current coronavirus crisis, the strong decreases especially in March/April 2020 and the slowly emerging recovery have produced highly different results for the comparison with the previous month/previous quarter and the comparison with the previous year. Both of the two perspectives are important: what is the short-term economic trend compared with the previous month/previous quarter, and how far has the catching-up process gone compared with the previous year’s level? In order to provide also a direct comparison with the pre-crisis level, all press releases on short-term indicators available in seasonally adjusted form now include a comparison with February 2020 or the 4th quarter of 2019.
Due to the corona pandemic, estimating the numbers of persons in employment and of unemployed at present involves higher uncertainty than usual. In addition, data collection problems have affected the estimation of unemployment figures.
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.
Crisis Monitor allows comparison between corona crisis and and financial and economic crisis
The employment figures are also part of the Crises monitor“, which is used by the Federal Statistical Office to compare the development of major short-term indicators between the corona crisis and the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009. The “Crisis Monitor” complements the “Corona statistics“ webpage, which has provided statistical information on the economic and social consequences of the corona pandemic since early April.
