Press release No. 321 of 29 July 2022
Persons in employment resident in Germany, June 2022
+0.1% on the previous month (seasonally adjusted)
+0.1% on the previous month (not seasonally adjusted)
+1.3% on the same month a year earlier
WIESBADEN – Roughly 45.4 million people (original value) resident in Germany (national concept) were in employment in June 2022 according to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Compared with the previous month, the number of persons in employment rose a seasonally adjusted 27,000 (+0.1%), following an average monthly increase of 52,000 people, or 0.1%, in the period from January to May 2022. The total number of persons in employment thus has grown since the peak of the third Covid-19 wave in Germany observed in spring 2021, largely unaffected by the further infection waves and – so far – by the consequences of the war in Ukraine. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of persons in employment in June 2022 thus was up by 0.3%, or 140,000 people, on February 2020, the month before the Covid-19 crisis began in Germany.
Without seasonal adjustment, the number of persons in employment in June 2022 rose by 40,000, or +0.1%, on May 2022. The increase was slightly more pronounced than compared with the June average of the three pre-crisis years from 2017 to 2019 (+21,000 people). The highest employment figure recorded so far in Germany is still 45.5 million persons in employment observed in November 2019.
Please note that short-time workers are counted as persons in employment in accordance with the employment accounts and labour force survey concepts.
Stable upward trend
Compared with June 2021, the number of persons in employment was up by 1.3%, or +588,000, in June 2022. The upward trend in the labour market thus continues although the year-on-year change rate was slightly down (May 2022: +1.5%).
Employment up 0.3% in the 2nd quarter of 2022 on the previous quarter after seasonal adjustment
According to provisional calculations, the number of persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany (domestic concept) averaged roughly 45.5 million in the second quarter of 2022. The number of persons in employment thus was up a seasonally adjusted 133,000, or 0.3%, on the previous quarter. Detailed results for the second quarter of 2022 will be released on 18 August 2022.
Adjusted unemployment rate at 2.8% in June 2022
According to calculations based on the labour force survey, 1.28 million people were unemployed in June 2022. That was a decrease of 244,000, or 16.0%, compared with June 2021. The unemployment rate was 3.0% (June 2021: 3.6%).
Adjusted for seasonal and irregular effects due, for instance, to weather conditions or strike, the number of unemployed stood at 1.24 million, which was slightly less than in May 2022 (-5,100 people; -0.4%). The adjusted unemployment rate decreased to 2.8% in June 2022 (May 2022: 2.9%).
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. In contrast, a comparison with the previous year is intended to offer a long-term comparison of levels and is hardly subject to seasonal fluctuations.
Both the measures taken to contain the Covid-19 pandemic and the inflow of refugees from Ukraine since March 2022 have led to an increased uncertainty of employment estimates.
In addition to calculating first employment data for the reference month of June 2022, the provisional monthly, quarterly and annual employment results were recalculated from 2018 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.
The recalculation of the employment figures resulted in monthly and quarterly year-on-year change rates that are no more than 0.1 percentage points higher, and no more than 0.2 percentage points lower, than the results published earlier. The change rates of the annual averages remain unchanged for 2018 to 2020. The annual average for 2021 is by 0.1 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 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. Detailed information is available on a special page of the Federal Statistical Office’s website. Within the system of the redesigned survey, the results at the current end of the series should be regarded as provisional.
Furthermore, a new European legal basis for the labour force survey entered into force in January 2021. The new EU regulation requires back-calculation of the time series of monthly results from 2020 back to 2009 in order to offset the break in the time series caused by the methodological changes introduced by the new regulation. With reference month May 2022, the time series in the publications of the Federal Statistical Office has been revised for that period.
More information:
A table containing monthly results on the number of persons in employment as from 2017 (unadjusted values and seasonally adjusted values) from the employment accounts is shown on the employment page of the Federal Statistical Office’s website. Tables containing unemployment results from the labour force survey including the unemployment rate are available on the unemployment page. Detailed data and long time series are available from the GENESIS-Online database. Data on persons in employment from the employment accounts are available in tables 13321-0001 (months), 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).
The number of persons in employment is also part of the Crisis monitorr (www.destatis.de/krisenmonitor), by means of which the Federal Statistical Office compares the development of major short-term indicators in the Covid-19 crisis and in the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009. It is also available on the “Corona statistics” webpage (www.destatis.de/corona) and in the Dashboard Germany (www.dashboard-deutschland.de), together with other indicators which can be used to assess the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Dashboard Germany portal of the Federal Statistical Office combines up-to-date indicators of official statistics and of other data providers on the topics of labour market, economy and finance as well as other topics such as health, mobility and energy.
The Federal Statistical Office is not only an information provider but also offers many career opportunities: www.destatis.de/karriere (only in german).
