Press release No. 309 of 30 June 2021
Persons in employment resident in Germany, May 2021
0.1% on the previous month (seasonally adjusted)
0.2% on the previous month (not seasonally adjusted)
0.1% on the same month a year earlier
WIESBADEN – Roughly 44.5 million people resident in Germany (national concept) were in employment in May 2021 according to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The seasonally adjusted number of persons in employment rose slightly by 25,000, or +0.1%, in May 2021 compared with the previous month. However, the number of persons in employment is still markedly below the pre-crisis level. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of persons in employment in May 2021 was down by 1.6%, or 706,000, on February 2020, the month before restrictions were imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic in Germany.
Without seasonal adjustment, the number of persons in employment in May 2021 rose by 93,000, or 0.2%, on April 2021. In May 2020, however, employment had decreased by 164,000 people (-0.4%) on the previous month due to the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. The spring upturn in the labour market that is usually observed in May was somewhat weaker in 2021 compared with the years preceding the coronavirus crisis. Between 2015 and 2019, employment in May had increased on average by 104,000 people.
After over a year of the coronavirus pandemic: no real recovery in the labour market
Compared with May 2020, the number of persons in employment was slightly up by 0.1%, or 23,000, in May 2021. Thus the year-on-year decrease in the number of persons in employment did not continue. The year-on-year change rate had been -1.7% in February 2021, -1.4% in March 2021 and -0.5% in April 2021. However, this calculated positive development is mainly due to the sharp fall in the number of persons in employment in spring 2020 (-1.2% or -559,000 people from March to May 2020), when the coronavirus crisis started to have a strong impact on the labour market. The year-on-year comparison now shows a positive result due to this so-called base effect. The last time employment increased noticeably was in the pre-crisis month of February 2020, that is, by 0.4% (+201,000) compared with February 2019.
Please note that short-time workers are not counted as unemployed but as persons in employment in accordance with the employment accounts and labour force survey concepts.
Adjusted unemployment rate at 3.7% in May 2021
According to calculations based on the labour force survey, 1.56 million people were unemployed in May 2021. That was a decline of 54,000 people (-3.3%) compared with May 2020. The unemployment rate was 3.6%.
Adjusted for seasonal and irregular effects, such as sharp falls in employment due to weather or strike, the number of unemployed stood at 1.60 million, which was a slight decline on April 2021 (-1.1%). The adjusted unemployment rate was 3.7% in May, which was 0.1 percentage points below that of April 2021.
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. Owing to strong temporary decreases during the current coronavirus crisis, the results of month-on-month/quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year comparisons may differ considerably. To enable a direct comparison with the pre-crisis level, all press releases on short-term indicators available in seasonally adjusted form will, for the time being, include a comparison with February 2020 or the 4th quarter of 2019.
Due to the coronavirus 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 mainly due to the different conceptual approaches (national or domestic concept) used 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 involved restrictions ever since. Therefore, the results as from January 2020 have been determined by means of an estimate based on the results for the previous periods, considering current developments.
In accordance with the new European legal basis for the labour force survey, the results of the redesigned survey are published for the first time for May 2021. At the same time, the results of the period from January 2020 to April 2021 are revised on this basis. Due to the changes which resulted from redesigning the survey, the results from the survey year 2020 are comparable with those of previous years only to a limited extent. As a result of changing over to the new data basis, the results at the current end of the series are still subject to uncertainties and must therefore be regarded as provisional.
| 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 | ||
| in million | in % | in million | in % | |||
| 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+. | ||||||
| 2018 | January | 44.266 | -0.6 | 1.5 | 44.511 | 0.2 |
| February | 44.317 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 44.537 | 0.1 | |
| March | 44.411 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 44.587 | 0.1 | |
| April | 44.554 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 44.632 | 0.1 | |
| May | 44.673 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 44.687 | 0.1 | |
| June | 44.690 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 44.716 | 0.1 | |
| July | 44.709 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 44.758 | 0.1 | |
| August | 44.754 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 44.807 | 0.1 | |
| September | 44.981 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 44.801 | 0.0 | |
| October | 45.094 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 44.846 | 0.1 | |
| November | 45.195 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 44.902 | 0.1 | |
| December | 45.072 | -0.3 | 1.2 | 44.941 | 0.1 | |
| 2019 | January | 44.773 | -0.7 | 1.1 | 44.999 | 0.1 |
| February | 44.836 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 45.039 | 0.1 | |
| March | 44.912 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 45.094 | 0.1 | |
| April | 45.046 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 45.131 | 0.1 | |
| May | 45.110 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 45.129 | 0.0 | |
| June | 45.092 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 45.132 | 0.0 | |
| July | 45.093 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 45.152 | 0.0 | |
| August | 45.077 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 45.137 | 0.0 | |
| September | 45.321 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 45.139 | 0.0 | |
| October | 45.411 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 45.156 | 0.0 | |
| November | 45.473 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 45.176 | 0.0 | |
| December | 45.327 | -0.3 | 0.6 | 45.190 | 0.0 | |
| 2020 | January | 45.004 | -0.7 | 0.5 | 45.217 | 0.1 |
| February | 45.037 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 45.230 | 0.0 | |
| March | 44.927 | -0.2 | 0.0 | 45.113 | -0.3 | |
| April | 44.642 | -0.6 | -0.9 | 44.729 | -0.9 | |
| May | 44.478 | -0.4 | -1.4 | 44.500 | -0.5 | |
| June | 44.464 | 0.0 | -1.4 | 44.514 | 0.0 | |
| July | 44.447 | 0.0 | -1.4 | 44.513 | 0.0 | |
| August | 44.475 | 0.1 | -1.3 | 44.541 | 0.1 | |
| September | 44.744 | 0.6 | -1.3 | 44.565 | 0.1 | |
| October | 44.831 | 0.2 | -1.3 | 44.574 | 0.0 | |
| November | 44.832 | 0.0 | -1.4 | 44.537 | -0.1 | |
| December | 44.665 | -0.4 | -1.5 | 44.526 | 0.0 | |
| 2021 | January | 44.287 | -0.8 | -1.6 | 44.490 | -0.1 |
| February | 44.286 | 0.0 | -1.7 | 44.467 | -0.1 | |
| March | 44.299 | 0.0 | -1.4 | 44.487 | 0.0 | |
| April | 44.408 | 0.2 | -0.5 | 44.499 | 0.0 | |
| May | 44.501 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 44.524 | 0.1 | |
| May 2021 3 | Previous month | Same month of the previous year | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2021 34 | Change | May 2020 4 | Change | ||
1 Persons in households aged 15 to 74 years. 7 Trend cycle component (X-13-ARIMA method using JDemetra+; calculation by Eurostat). | |||||
| Original values | |||||
| in million | in % | in million | in % | ||
| Unemployed persons | 1.56 | 1.65 | -5.5 | 1.61 | -3.3 |
| Persons in employment | 41.20 | 40.99 | 0.5 | 41.38 | -0.4 |
| shares in % | in % | shares in % | in % | ||
| Unemployment rate 5 | 3.6 | 3.9 | -5.7 | 3.8 | -2.8 |
| Employment rate 6 | 66.5 | 66.2 | 0.4 | 66.9 | -0.6 |
| Adjusted results 7 | |||||
| in million | in % | in million | in % | ||
| Unemployed persons | 1.60 | 1.62 | -1.1 | 1.67 | -4.2 |
| Persons in employment | 41.37 | 41.34 | 0.1 | 41.78 | -1.0 |
| shares in % | in percentage points | shares in % | in percentage points | ||
| Unemployment rate 5 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 0.0 | 3.8 | -0.1 |
| Men | 4.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 4.2 | -0.2 |
| Women | 3.4 | 3.4 | 0.0 | 3.4 | 0.0 |
| Persons aged under 25 years | 7.5 | 7.7 | -0.2 | 6.9 | 0.6 |
| Persons aged 25 to 74 years | 3.3 | 3.3 | 0.0 | 3.5 | -0.2 |
| Employment rate 6 | 66.8 | 66.8 | 0.0 | 67.5 | -0.8 |
Crisis Monitor enables comparison between corona crisis and financial and economic crisis
The employment figures also form part of the “Crisis Monitor” (www.destatis.de/krisenmonitor) by means of which the Federal Statistical Office compares the development of major short-term indicators in the corona crisis and in the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009. The Crisis monitor complements the “Corona statistics” webpage (www.destatis.de/corona), which provides statistical information on the economic and social consequences of the corona pandemic.
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).
