Press release No. 331 of 30 August 2024
Persons in employment resident in Germany, July 2024
0.0% on the previous month (seasonally adjusted)
-0.1% on the previous month (not seasonally adjusted)
+0.4% on the same month a year earlier
WIESBADEN – Roughly 46.0 million persons resident in Germany were in employment in July 2024. According to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the seasonally adjusted number of persons in employment rose slightly by 5,000 (0.0%) compared with the previous month. Month on month, the number of persons in employment rose by 9,000 in June 2024 and by 21,000 in May.
Without seasonal adjustment, the number of persons in employment in July 2024 fell by 47,000 (-0.1%) on June 2024. This was therefore the third year in succession that employment figures in July were down month on month (July 2023: -34,000 persons, July 2022: -52,000 persons). In the five years prior to this – i.e. in the period from 2017 to 2021 – employment in July had consistently increased compared with the previous month.
Stable upward trend year on year
Compared with July 2023, the number of persons in employment in July 2024 was up by 0.4%, or 165,000. The monthly rates of change compared with a year earlier also stood at +0.4% in the months from February to June 2024. The year-on-year comparison therefore reflects the ongoing long-term positive trend on the labour market.
Adjusted unemployment rate at 3.4% in July 2024
According to results of the labour force survey, 1.65 million people were unemployed in July 2024. This represented an increase of 346,000, or 26.5%, compared with July 2023. The unemployment rate rose to 3.7% (July 2023: 3.0%).
Adjusted for seasonal and irregular effects, the number of unemployed stood at 1.53 million in July 2024, and was therefore unchanged from June 2024. Compared with the previous month, the adjusted unemployment rate remained at 3.4%.
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. Year-on-year comparisons, by contrast, enable long-term comparisons of levels and are largely unaffected by seasonal fluctuations.
The number of persons in employment from the employment accounts differs from that of the labour force survey, which has been integrated into the microcensus. The differences are mainly due to the different conceptual approaches of the two statistical systems (national and domestic concept). Background information on the differences in the results is available in the explanatory notes (only in German) on the statistics. For information on the microcensus and the labour force survey please refer to the relevant theme page (only in German) on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.
Persons in employment and unemployed persons are counted according to the employment status concept of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Therefore, the unemployment figures shown here differ from registered unemployment as determined and published by the Federal Employment Agency in accordance with the German Social Code. In the European Statistical System, the results of the labour force surveys are used as a standard basis for calculating unemployment rates.
More information:
A table containing monthly results on the number of persons in employment (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 (only in German) from the labour force survey including the unemployment rate are also available on this 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). Due to the 2024 major revision of national accounts (only in German), detailed annual results are expected to be available in table 81000-0011 from the start of September. Monthly data on persons in employment and unemployed persons from the labour force survey can be found in tables 13231-0001 (overview), 13321-0002 (unemployed persons, persons in employment and economically active population) and 13231-0003 (unemployment rates).
Labour market results are also available on Dashboard Germany at www.dashboard-deutschland.de (only in German). In this data portal, the Federal Statistical Office brings together up-to-date indicators from official statistics producers and other data providers on the topics of the economy, finance, the labour market, construction, housing, energy and Ukraine. The portal also contains the Economic Pulse Monitor (Pulsmesser für die Wirtschaft) tool (only in German) for real-time economic monitoring.
Special webpage on skilled labour:
A special webpage of the Federal Statistical Office combines facts and figures on the subject of skilled labour (www.destatis.de/fachkraefte) (only in German). It provides data on demography, employment, education and immigration. The information offered ranges from projections of the future size of the labour force to analyses of the labour supply and data on labour migration and the vocational training market. New information is added continually.
