Press release No. 451 of 29 November 2024
Persons in employment resident in Germany, October 2024
0.0% 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 46.1 million persons resident in Germany were in employment in October 2024. According to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the seasonally adjusted number of persons in employment remained virtually unchanged (-3,000; 0.0%) compared with the previous month. Prior to this, month-on-month employment figures in August and September 2024 dropped by 24,000 and 18,000, respectively.
Without seasonal adjustment, the number of persons in employment in October 2024 rose by 103,000 (+0.2%) on September 2024. This typical seasonal increase on the previous month was smaller than the average recorded for October 2022 and October 2023 (+130,000 people).
Only slight growth in employment year on year
Compared with October 2023, the number of persons in employment in October 2024 increased by 0.1%, or 36,000. Employment growth was 0.5% in January 2024 compared with the same month a year earlier but weakened in the course of the year, amounting to only +0.1% in September and October.
Adjusted unemployment rate at 3.4% in October 2024
According to results of the labour force survey, 1.46 million people were unemployed in October 2024. That represented an increase of 57,000, or 4.1%, on October 2023. The unemployment rate rose to 3.3% (October 2023: 3.2%).
Adjusted for seasonal and irregular effects, the number of unemployed stood at 1.51 million in October 2024, which was a decline of 10,000 people on September 2024 (-0.7%). 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 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. For detailed data and long time series please refer to 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). 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.
Important information regarding the GENESIS-Online database:
After leaving the beta phase, our database's new user interface has been available as the main interface version since 5 November 2024. The new interface offers faster data retrieval and intuitive table search and customisation options. There have also been changes to the structure of the machine-readable flat file (CSV) format and the data output format for table downloads. For further details and other important information on the release, please see the info page of the new GENESIS-Online database.
