Press release No. N 061 of 25 September 2020
- Construction boom caused by “Aufbau Ost” programme (1991-1995) never reached again
- Construction industry is still a relevant economic factor especially in non-city Länder
- Construction backlog decreased by almost a third from 1995 to 2019
WIESBADEN – The temporary construction boom in Germany caused, for instance, by the “Aufbau Ost” programme (development programme for eastern Germany) has not had a lasting positive effect on employment in the construction industry.
Since 1991, the number of persons in employment in the construction industry in Germany fell by 300,000 to just under 2.6 million in 2019. Lately, the majority of them (2,0 million) have worked in western Germany. This is reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) based on results of the Employment Accounts Working Party of the Federation and the Länder. The proportion of total persons in employment in 2019 in western Germany (5.4%) was not much lower than in eastern Germany (6.8%). The importance of the construction industry for the labour market thus has converged in the two parts of Germany. In 1991, the proportion of all persons in employment in construction was 9.9% in eastern, and 6.7% in western Germany.
Methodological note:
The data on gross value added and on employment in the Länder are calculated as at February 2020. The overall figure for Germany in 2019 is already based on revised federal data (as at 4 September 2020).
Employment is shown as an average figure. The data cover all persons in employment, irrespective of their status in employment (self-employed and family workers, employees, public officials) and irrespective of their hours worked. The above data are based on the domestic concept, i.e. they refer to the people’s place of employment rather than their place of residence. The calculations thus comply with the definitions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the European System of Accounts (ESA) 2010.
In this press release, Berlin is considered part of the eastern Länder.
More information
on regional common features and differences between eastern and western Länder 30 years after German reunification is contained in our Statistik-Dossier and on our theme page on “30 Jahre Deutsche Einheit”.
For additional information at the Länder level on employment, gross value added and many other topics please go to the pages of the Employment Accounts Working Party and the Working Party on the National Accounts of the Länder.
