Press release No. 002 of 3 January 2025
Persons in employment resident in Germany, November 2024
+0.1% on the previous month (seasonally adjusted)
+0.1% on the previous month (not seasonally adjusted)
0.0% on the same month a year earlier
WIESBADEN – Roughly 46.1 million persons resident in Germany were in employment in November 2024. According to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the seasonally adjusted number of persons in employment rose slightly by 24,000 (+0.1%) compared with the previous month. In October, employment increased by 12,000 persons. Employment therefore showed a slightly positive trend again recently following average monthly declines of 19,000 persons in the months of June to September 2024, after adjustment for seasonal variations.
Without seasonal adjustment, the number of persons in employment in November 2024 rose by 31,000 (+0.1%) on October 2024. This month-on-month increase was larger than the average recorded for November 2022 and November 2023 (+20,000 people).
Number of persons in employment at previous year’s level
Compared with November 2023, the number of persons in employment was almost unchanged in November 2024 (0.0%, or +10,000). Employment therefore remained at the previous year's level for the third consecutive month; the change rates in September and October 2024 also were 0.0%.
Adjusted unemployment rate at 3.4% in November 2024
According to results of the labour force survey, 1.49 million people were unemployed in November 2024. This represented an increase of 138,000, or 10.1%, compared with November 2023. The unemployment rate rose to 3.3% (November 2023: 3.1%).
Adjusted for seasonal and irregular effects, the number of unemployed stood at 1.52 million in November 2024, which was a small decline of 2,000 people on October 2024 (-0.1%). The adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.4% compared with the previous month.
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.
In addition to calculating first results for the number of persons in employment in reference month November 2024, the Federal Statistical Office also recalculated the monthly employment results published since January 2024 as part of its first estimation of the overall result for 2024 (see Press Release 1 of 2 January 2025). At the level of the overall economy, the recalculated year-on-year rates of change for the months from January to October 2024 are at most 0.1 percentage points lower than the previously calculated results.
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 with unemployment results Tables with 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 provided in 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), 13231-0002 (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.
