Press release No. 156 of 30 April 2025
Persons in employment resident in Germany, March 2025
0.0% on the previous month (seasonally adjusted)
+0.1% on the previous month (not seasonally adjusted)
-0.1% on the same month a year earlier
WIESBADEN – Roughly 45.7 million persons resident in Germany were in employment in March 2025. According to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the seasonally adjusted number of persons in employment was almost unchanged (+6,000 or 0.0%) compared with the previous month. Overall, it has remained nearly the same since December 2024, following a slight increase of 9,000 people in February 2025 and a decrease of 13,000 people in January 2025.
Without seasonal adjustment, the number of persons in employment in March 2025 rose by 54,000 (+0.1%) from February 2025, coinciding with the start of the usual spring upturn. The increase was less pronounced, however, than the average March increase of the years 2022 to 2024 (+73,000 people).
Year-on-year decrease in employment continues
Compared with March 2024, however, the number of persons in employment in March 2025 was down 0.1%, or 53,000. In the months from December 2024 to February 2025, the year-on-year rate of change also stood at -0.1%. The slight downward trend in the year-on-year labour market figures, which has been observed since November 2024, therefore continued at the same pace in March 2025.
Seasonally adjusted number of persons in employment scarcely changed in 1st quarter of 2025
In the 1st quarter of 2025, the average number of persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany (domestic concept) was roughly 45.8 million according to provisional calculations. After seasonal adjustment, the number of persons in employment therefore fell slightly by 7,000 (0.0%) from the previous quarter. Detailed results for the 1st quarter of 2025 will be released on 16 May 2025.
Adjusted unemployment rate at 3.5% in March 2025
According to results of the labour force survey, 1.64 million people were unemployed in March 2025. This represented an increase of 96,000, or 6.2%, compared with March 2024. The unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, which was an increase of 0.2 percentage points from the same month a year earlier (3.5%).
Adjusted for seasonal and irregular effects, the number of unemployed stood at 1.58 million in March 2025, which was a decline of 2,000 people on February 2025 (-0.1%). The adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.5% compared with the previous month.
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 (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).
Results for the labour market can also be found on the Economic Dashboard, which is part of Dashboard Germany (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.
