Press release No. 036 of 31 January 2019
WIESBADEN – In December 2018, 45 million persons resident in Germany were in employment according to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Compared with December 2017, the number of persons in employment increased by 1.1% (+494,000). In December 2018, roughly 1.3 million people were unemployed, 160,000 fewer than a year earlier.
According to provisional results of the employment accounts, the number of persons in employment fell by 146,000, or 0.3%, in December 2018 on the previous month. The month-on-month decrease was smaller than the relevant average of the past five years (-158,000 people). After seasonal adjustment, that is, after the elimination of the usual seasonal fluctuations, the number of persons in employment increased by 42,000, or 0.1%, in December 2018 on November 2018.
Number of persons in employment in the fourth quarter of 2018 up 1.1% on the fourth quarter of 2017
In the fourth quarter of 2018, the number of persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany amounted to roughly 45.2 million according to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Compared with a year earlier, the number of persons in employment was up by 507,000 or 1.1%. Detailed results on the fourth quarter of 2018 will be released on 18 February 2019.
Unemployment rate unchanged at 3.3% in December 2018
Results of the labour force survey show that there were 1.34 million unemployed in December 2018. The number declined by roughly 70,000 on November. When adjusted for seasonal and irregular effects, the number of unemployed stood at 1.41 million in December. It was thus by 14,000 people lower than in the previous month. The adjusted unemployment rate was 3.3% again in December 2018.
| Year | Month | Original values | Seasonally adjusted 2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| persons | change on previous month | change on the same month of the previous year | persons | change on previous month | ||
| in million | in % | in million | in % | |||
| 1 Results of employment accounts as part of national accounting: persons in employment whose place of residence is in Germany (resident concept). The respective time series for persons in employment whose place of work is in Germany (domestic concept) are presented here. 2 Seasonal adjustment by Census X-12-Arima. | ||||||
| 2016 | January | 42.964 | -0.9 | 1.3 | 43.267 | 0.0 |
| February | 43.038 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 43.327 | 0.1 | |
| March | 43.207 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 43.395 | 0.2 | |
| April | 43.347 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 43.426 | 0.1 | |
| May | 43.479 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 43.474 | 0.1 | |
| June | 43.568 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 43.530 | 0.1 | |
| July | 43.535 | -0.1 | 1.2 | 43.533 | 0.0 | |
| August | 43.631 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 43.611 | 0.2 | |
| September | 43.870 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 43.679 | 0.2 | |
| October | 43.972 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 43.724 | 0.1 | |
| November | 44.057 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 43.788 | 0.1 | |
| December | 43.929 | -0.3 | 1.4 | 43.853 | 0.1 | |
| 2017 | January | 43.596 | -0.8 | 1.5 | 43.895 | 0.1 |
| February | 43.667 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 43.952 | 0.1 | |
| March | 43.821 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 44.004 | 0.1 | |
| April | 43.962 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 44.039 | 0.1 | |
| May | 44.083 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 44.076 | 0.1 | |
| June | 44.177 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 44.137 | 0.1 | |
| July | 44.183 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 44.186 | 0.1 | |
| August | 44.245 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 44.225 | 0.1 | |
| September | 44.455 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 44.266 | 0.1 | |
| October | 44.543 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 44.302 | 0.1 | |
| November | 44.631 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 44.362 | 0.1 | |
| December | 44.502 | -0.3 | 1.3 | 44.422 | 0.1 | |
| 2018 | January | 44.243 | -0.6 | 1.5 | 44.539 | 0.3 |
| February | 44.290 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 44.573 | 0.1 | |
| March | 44.401 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 44.584 | 0.0 | |
| April | 44.546 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 44.624 | 0.1 | |
| May | 44.675 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 44.667 | 0.1 | |
| June | 44.718 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 44.679 | 0.0 | |
| July | 44.721 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 44.727 | 0.1 | |
| August | 44.786 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 44.766 | 0.1 | |
| September | 44.978 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 44.790 | 0.1 | |
| October | 45.066 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 44.830 | 0.1 | |
| November | 45.142 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 44.872 | 0.1 | |
| December | 44.996 | -0.3 | 1.1 | 44.914 | 0.1 | |
| December 2018 | Previous month | Same month of the previous year | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2018 | Change | December 2017 | Change | ||
| 1 Persons in households aged 15 to 74 years. 2 Share of unemployed in the labour force (persons in employment and unemployed) aged 15 to 74 years. 3 Share of persons in employment in all persons aged 15 to 74 years. 4 Trend cycle component (X-13-ARIMA method using JDemetra+; calculation by Eurostat). | |||||
| Original values | |||||
| in million | in % | in million | in % | ||
| Unemployed persons | 1.34 | 1.41 | -5.0 | 1.50 | -10.7 |
| Persons in employment | 42.14 | 42.51 | -0.9 | 41.81 | 0.8 |
| shares in % | in % | shares in % | in % | ||
| Unemployment rate 2 | 3.1 | 3.2 | -3.1 | 3.5 | -11.4 |
| Employment rate 3 | 67.7 | 68.3 | -0.9 | 67.5 | 0.3 |
| Adjusted results 4 | |||||
| in million | in % | in million | in % | ||
| Unemployed persons | 1.41 | 1.43 | -1.4 | 1.54 | -8.4 |
| Persons in employment | 42.06 | 42.00 | 0.1 | 41.65 | 1.0 |
| shares in % | in percentage points | shares in % | in percentage points | ||
| Unemployment rate 2 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 0.0 | 3.6 | -0.3 |
| Men | 3.7 | 3.7 | 0.0 | 3.9 | -0.2 |
| Women | 2.7 | 2.8 | -0.1 | 3.1 | -0.4 |
| Persons aged under 25 years | 6.0 | 6.1 | -0.1 | 6.5 | -0.5 |
| Persons aged 25 to 74 years | 3.0 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 3.3 | -0.3 |
| Employment rate 3 | 67.5 | 67.5 | 0.0 | 67.3 | 0.2 |
Methodological notes:
Detailed data and long time series are available from the GENESIS-Online database. The data on persons in employment from employment accounts are available in tables 13321-0001 (months) and 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 (months).
In addition to the first calculation of the number of persons in employment for the reference month of December 2018, the provisional monthly employment results were recalculated for the year 2018. For this purpose, all additional sources of employment statistics that had become available until the time of calculation were taken into account. For the monthly employment figures, the recalculation resulted in year-on-year change rates which only for October are by 0.1 percentage points higher than the results published earlier. The annual result of 44.8 million persons in employment (domestic concept) and the year-on-year change rate of +1.3%, which were communicated in the press release of 2 January 2019 (No. 01/19), remained unchanged despite the recalculation.
The number of persons in employment as obtained in the employment accounts and that from the labour force survey differ. The differences are due to the different concepts applied in the two statistical systems. For more information on the background of the differences in results between the labour force survey and the employment accounts.
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 the European Statistical System, the results of the labour force survey are used as a standard basis for calculating unemployment rates.
Annual results, quarterly results and more monthly results are available: Employment.
Under "Unemployment", the results adjusted by means of the Berlin method (BV4.1) are additionally available (trend cycle component).
