Press release No. 361 of 29 July 2021
Persons in employment resident in Germany, June 2021
0.2% on the previous month (seasonally adjusted)
0.2% on the previous month (not seasonally adjusted)
0.2% on the same month a year earlier
WIESBADEN – Roughly 44.7 million people resident in Germany (national concept) were in employment in June 2021 according to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The seasonally adjusted number of persons in employment rose markedly by 78,000, or +0.2%, in June 2021 compared with the previous month. However, the number of persons in employment is still considerably below the pre-crisis level. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of persons in employment in June 2021 was down by 1.3%, or 573,000, 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 June 2021 rose by 74,000, or +0.2%, on May 2021. The month-on-month increase was more than twice that recorded on average for June of the five pre-crisis years 2015 to 2019 (+36,000 people).
Largest year-on-year increase in employment since February 2020
Compared with June 2020, the number of persons in employment was up by 0.2%, or +100,000, in June 2021. In May 2021, too, the number of persons in employment rose slightly on a year earlier (+21,000 people or 0.0%). In contrast, the year-on-year change rate had been -1.6% in February 2021, -1.3% in March 2021 and -0.5% in April 2021. However, this calculated positive year-on-year development is mainly due to the sharp fall in the number of persons in employment in spring 2020 (-1.2% or -524,000 people from March to June 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. Nevertheless, employment increase in June 2021 war larger than in May 2021. The last time employment increased more noticeably year on year was in the pre-crisis month of February 2020, that is, by 0.6% (+266,000) compared with February 2019. In March 2020, the year-on-year increase had already been reduced by the pandemic (+0.2% or +95,000 people).
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.
Employment up 0.2% in the 2nd quarter of 2021 on the previous quarter after seasonal adjustment
In the second quarter of 2021, the average number of persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany (domestic concept) was roughly 44.7 million according to provisional calculations. After seasonal adjustment, the number of persons in employment was up by 75,000, or 0.2%, on the previous quarter. Detailed results for the second quarter of 2021 will be released on 17 August 2021.
Adjusted unemployment rate unchanged at 3.7% in June 2021
According to calculations based on the labour force survey, 1.59 million people were unemployed in June 2021. That was an increase of 30,000 people (2.0%) compared with June 2020. The unemployment rate was 3.7%.
Adjusted for seasonal and irregular effects, such as sharp falls due to weather conditions or strike, the number of unemployed stood at 1.58 million, which was a slight decline on May 2021 (-1.2%). The adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged on the previous month at 3.7% in June 2021.
Methodological note:
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, estimating unemployment figures is currently affected by data collection problems.
In addition to calculating first employment data for the reference month of June 2021, the provisional monthly, quarterly and annual employment results were recalculated from 2017 as part of the regular revision of national accounting results. All sources of employment statistics that had additionally become available by the time of calculation were taken into account for the employment accounts.
Regarding the monthly and quarterly employment figures, the recalculation resulted in year-on-year change rates that are no more than 0.1 percentage points lower, and no more than 0.2 percentage points higher, than the results published earlier. The change rates of the annual averages remain unchanged for 2017 to 2019. The annual average for 2020 is by 0.2 percentage points higher.
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 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 for some time involved restrictions. Therefore, the results as from January 2020 were first 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 were published for the first time for May 2021. At the same time, the results of the period from January 2020 to April 2021 were revised on this basis. Due to the changes, the results from survey year 2020 are comparable with those of previous years only to a limited extent. As a result of changing over to the redesigned data collection, 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 | 44.257 | -0.6 | 1.5 | 44.504 | 0.2 |
| February | 44.308 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 44.530 | 0.1 | |
| March | 44.404 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 44.578 | 0.1 | |
| April | 44.549 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 44.627 | 0.1 | |
| May | 44.667 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 44.687 | 0.1 | |
| June | 44.684 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 44.710 | 0.1 | |
| July | 44.704 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 44.750 | 0.1 | |
| August | 44.748 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 44.797 | 0.1 | |
| September | 44.975 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 44.791 | 0.0 | |
| October | 45.085 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 44.834 | 0.1 | |
| November | 45.186 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 44.893 | 0.1 | |
| December | 45.061 | -0.3 | 1.2 | 44.929 | 0.1 | |
| 2019 | January | 44.761 | -0.7 | 1.1 | 44.992 | 0.1 |
| February | 44.825 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 45.033 | 0.1 | |
| March | 44.903 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 45.081 | 0.1 | |
| April | 45.039 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 45.126 | 0.1 | |
| May | 45.103 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 45.133 | 0.0 | |
| June | 45.088 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 45.126 | 0.0 | |
| July | 45.094 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 45.148 | 0.0 | |
| August | 45.082 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 45.135 | 0.0 | |
| September | 45.331 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 45.145 | 0.0 | |
| October | 45.427 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 45.168 | 0.1 | |
| November | 45.496 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 45.201 | 0.1 | |
| December | 45.358 | -0.3 | 0.7 | 45.219 | 0.0 | |
| 2020 | January | 45.049 | -0.7 | 0.6 | 45.269 | 0.1 |
| February | 45.091 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 45.291 | 0.0 | |
| March | 44.998 | -0.2 | 0.2 | 45.178 | -0.2 | |
| April | 44.729 | -0.6 | -0.7 | 44.820 | -0.8 | |
| May | 44.572 | -0.4 | -1.2 | 44.613 | -0.5 | |
| June | 44.567 | 0.0 | -1.2 | 44.615 | 0.0 | |
| July | 44.557 | 0.0 | -1.2 | 44.614 | 0.0 | |
| August | 44.587 | 0.1 | -1.1 | 44.644 | 0.1 | |
| September | 44.849 | 0.6 | -1.1 | 44.664 | 0.0 | |
| October | 44.942 | 0.2 | -1.1 | 44.680 | 0.0 | |
| November | 44.923 | 0.0 | -1.3 | 44.630 | -0.1 | |
| December | 44.773 | -0.3 | -1.3 | 44.631 | 0.0 | |
| 2021 | January | 44.366 | -0.9 | -1.5 | 44.577 | -0.1 |
| February | 44.366 | 0.0 | -1.6 | 44.557 | 0.0 | |
| March | 44.431 | 0.1 | -1.3 | 44.610 | 0.1 | |
| April | 44.520 | 0.2 | -0.5 | 44.616 | 0.0 | |
| May | 44.593 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 44.640 | 0.1 | |
| June | 44.667 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 44.718 | 0.2 | |
| June 2021 3 | Previous month | Same month of the previous year | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2021 3 | Change | June 2020 | Change | ||
| 1 Persons in households aged 15 to 74 years. 2 Discrepancies may occur as the results are presented in a rounded form. 3 Results based on the labour force survey, provisional. 4 Share of unemployed in the labour force (persons in employment and unemployed) aged 15 to 74 years. 5 Share of persons in employment in all persons aged 15 to 74 years. 6 Trend cycle component (X-13-ARIMA method using JDemetra+; calculation by Eurostat). | |||||
| Original values | |||||
| in million | in % | in million | in % | ||
| Unemployed persons | 1.59 | 1.56 | 2.0 | 1.73 | -8.1 |
| Persons in employment | 41.38 | 41.20 | 0.4 | 41.59 | -0.5 |
| shares in % | in % | shares in % | in % | ||
| Unemployment rate 4 | 3.7 | 3.6 | 1.5 | 4.0 | -7.3 |
| Employment rate 5 | 66.9 | 66.5 | 0.7 | 67.3 | -0.5 |
| Adjusted results 6 | |||||
| in million | in % | in million | in % | ||
| Unemployed persons | 1.58 | 1.59 | -1.2 | 1.71 | -7.7 |
| Persons in employment | 41.42 | 41.40 | 0.1 | 41.67 | -0.6 |
| shares in % | in percentage points | shares in % | in percentage points | ||
| Unemployment rate 4 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 0.0 | 3.9 | -0.3 |
| Men | 4.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 4.3 | -0.4 |
| Women | 3.3 | 3.4 | 0.0 | 3.5 | -0.2 |
| Persons aged under 25 years | 7.5 | 7.7 | -0.2 | 7.2 | 0.4 |
| Persons aged 25 to 74 years | 3.2 | 3.3 | 0.0 | 3.6 | -0.3 |
| Employment rate 5 | 67.0 | 66.8 | 0.2 | 67.4 | -0.4 |
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).
