Press release No. 049 of 16 February 2016
WIESBADEN – In the fourth quarter of 2015, the number of persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany amounted to roughly 43.4 million according to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Compared with the fourth quarter of 2014, the number of persons in employment increased by 412,000 or 1.0%. Employment growth in the fourth quarter of 2015 thus was larger than in the preceding quarters. In the first and second quarters of 2015, the year-on-year rate of increase was 0.7% each, in the third quarter 0.8%.
Compared with the third quarter of 2015, the number of persons in employment in the fourth quarter of 2015 rose by 189,000 (+0.4%). The increase was higher than the relevant average increase recorded over the past five years (+171,000 people). After seasonal adjustment, that is, after the elimination of seasonal fluctuations, the relevant number in the fourth quarter of 2015 increased by 123,000 (+0.3%) compared with the previous quarter.
In the fourth quarter of 2015, the rise in the total number of persons in employment on the same quarter a year earlier continued to be mainly due to the growth in the service sector. The largest absolute employment gains were recorded for business services (+151,000 people or +2.6%), followed by public services, education, health (+145,000 people or +1.4%) and trade, transport, accommodation and food services (+104,000 people or +1.0%). In industry (excluding construction), the number of persons in employment was up by 18,000 (+0.2%) and in construction it rose slightly by 1,000 in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared with the same quarter a year earlier. In agriculture, forestry and fishing, the number of persons in employment decreased by 19,000 (–3.0%).
The number of employees was up by 510,000 (+1.3%) to 39.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2015 on the fourth quarter of 2014, exceeding for the first time the 39-million threshold. The number of self-employed including family workers decreased by 98,000 (–2.3%) to 4.2 million in the same period. Self-employment has decreased year on year for over three years.
According to first provisional results of the Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Agency, the average number of hours worked per person in employment was up 1.1% to 348.1 hours in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared with the fourth quarter of 2014. The total number of hours worked, that is, the number of persons in employment multiplied by the hours worked per person in employment, increased by 2.0% to over 15.1 billion hours in the same period.
In addition to calculating first results of the number of persons in employment and the number of hours worked for the fourth quarter of 2015, the results published so far for the first three quarters of 2015 were recalculated. For this purpose, all additional sources of employment statistics that had become available by the time of recalculation were taken into account. The recalculation resulted, at the level of the overall economy, in a year-on-year change rate for the second quarter which is by 0.1 percentage points higher than the result published earlier. This did not affect the annual result of 43.0 million persons in employment (domestic concept) which was communicated in the press release of 4 January 2016 (No. 01/16).
| Year, Quarter 1 | Persons in employment 2 | Hours worked 3 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Employees | Self- employed 4 | by persons in employment | per person in employment | ||
| Persons in 1,000 | mn hours | hours | ||||
| 1 For persons in employment: annual and/or quarterly averages. 2 Results of employment accounts as part of national accounts; persons in employment whose place of employment is in Germany (domestic concept). 3 Source: Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (Institute for Employment Research) of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency), Nuremberg. 4 Including family workers. | ||||||
| 2012 | 42,060 | 37,500 | 4,560 | 57,845 | 1,375.3 | |
| 2013 | 42,328 | 37,869 | 4,459 | 57,639 | 1,361.7 | |
| 2014 | 42,703 | 38,306 | 4,397 | 58,349 | 1,366,4 | |
| 2015 | 43,032 | 38,732 | 4,300 | 58,999 | 1,371.0 | |
| 2012 | 1st qtr | 41,572 | 37,002 | 4,570 | 14,891 | 358.2 |
| 2nd qtr | 41,989 | 37,411 | 4,578 | 13,625 | 324.5 | |
| 3rd qtr | 42,262 | 37,681 | 4,581 | 14,746 | 348.9 | |
| 4th qtr | 42,418 | 37,905 | 4,513 | 14,583 | 343.8 | |
| 2013 | 1st qtr | 41,880 | 37,406 | 4,474 | 14,479 | 345.7 |
| 2nd qtr | 42,249 | 37,769 | 4,480 | 13,699 | 324.2 | |
| 3rd qtr | 42,515 | 38,046 | 4,469 | 14,854 | 349.4 | |
| 4th qtr | 42,666 | 38,253 | 4,413 | 14,607 | 342.4 | |
| 2014 | 1st qtr | 42,226 | 37,806 | 4,420 | 14,810 | 350.7 |
| 2nd qtr | 42,667 | 38,250 | 4,417 | 13,754 | 322.4 | |
| 3rd qtr | 42,903 | 38,497 | 4,406 | 14,968 | 348.9 | |
| 4th qtr | 43,016 | 38,669 | 4,347 | 14,816 | 344.4 | |
| 2015 | 1st qtr | 42,506 | 38,176 | 4,330 | 14,902 | 350.6 |
| 2nd qtr | 42,953 | 38,641 | 4,312 | 13,870 | 322.9 | |
| 3rd qtr | 43,239 | 38,933 | 4,306 | 15,108 | 349.4 | |
| 4th qtr | 43,428 | 39,179 | 4,249 | 15,118 | 348.1 | |
| Change in % on the corresponding period of the previous year | ||||||
| 2012 | 1.2 | 1.3 | –0.1 | –0.1 | –1.3 | |
| 2013 | 0.6 | 1.0 | –2.2 | –0.4 | –1.0 | |
| 2014 | 0.9 | 1.2 | –1.4 | 1.2 | 0.3 | |
| 2015 | 0.8 | 1.1 | –2.2 | 1.1 | 0.3 | |
| 2012 | 1st qtr | 1.3 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 1.3 | –0.1 |
| 2nd qtr | 1.2 | 1.3 | –0.2 | –0.6 | –1.7 | |
| 3rd qtr | 1.1 | 1.2 | 0.4 | –0.3 | –1.4 | |
| 4th qtr | 1.0 | 1.2 | –0.7 | –0.9 | –1.9 | |
| 2013 | 1st qtr | 0.7 | 1.1 | –2.1 | –2.8 | –3.5 |
| 2nd qtr | 0.6 | 1.0 | –2.1 | 0.5 | –0.1 | |
| 3rd qtr | 0.6 | 1.0 | –2.4 | 0.7 | 0.1 | |
| 4th qtr | 0.6 | 0.9 | –2.2 | 0.2 | –0.4 | |
| 2014 | 1st qtr | 0.8 | 1.1 | –1.2 | 2.3 | 1.4 |
| 2nd qtr | 1.0 | 1.3 | –1.4 | 0.4 | –0.6 | |
| 3rd qtr | 0.9 | 1.2 | –1.4 | 0.8 | –0.1 | |
| 4th qtr | 0.8 | 1.1 | –1.5 | 1.4 | 0.6 | |
| 2015 | 1st qtr | 0.7 | 1.0 | –2.0 | 0.6 | –0.0 |
| 2nd qtr | 0.7 | 1.0 | –2.4 | 0.8 | 0.2 | |
| 3rd qtr | 0.8 | 1.1 | –2.3 | 0.9 | 0.1 | |
| 4th qtr | 1.0 | 1.3 | –2.3 | 2.0 | 1.1 | |
| Sector of economic activity 2 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2015 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | ||||
| 1 Results of employment accounts as part of national accounts (domestic concept); annual and quarterly averages. 2 Classification of Economic Activities, 2008 edition (WZ 2008). | |||||||
| Persons in 1,000 | |||||||
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 641 | 651 | 635 | 610 | 670 | 648 | 609 |
| Industry, excluding construction | 8,025 | 8,064 | 8,080 | 8 034 | 8 042 | 8,108 | 8,125 |
| including: | |||||||
| Manufacturing | 7,451 | 7,491 | 7,514 | 7,470 | 7,477 | 7,541 | 7,556 |
| Construction | 2,428 | 2,443 | 2,431 | 2,365 | 2,427 | 2,472 | 2,463 |
| Trade, transport, accommodation and food services | 9,756 | 9,827 | 9,906 | 9,755 | 9,889 | 9,965 | 10,024 |
| Information and communication | 1,218 | 1,227 | 1,209 | 1,200 | 1,210 | 1,209 | 1,214 |
| Financial and insurance activities | 1,202 | 1,200 | 1,196 | 1,199 | 1,190 | 1,195 | 1,202 |
| Real estate activities | 460 | 463 | 471 | 467 | 470 | 472 | 475 |
| Business services | 5,535 | 5,629 | 5,774 | 5,641 | 5,746 | 5,845 | 5,858 |
| Public services, education, health | 10,082 | 10,197 | 10,325 | 10,262 | 10,305 | 10,298 | 10,434 |
| Other services | 2,981 | 3,002 | 3,005 | 2,973 | 3,004 | 3,027 | 3,024 |
| Change in % on the corresponding period of the previous year | |||||||
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | –3.8 | 1.6 | –2.5 | –1.9 | –2.5 | –2.6 | –3.0 |
| Industry, excluding construction | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| including: | |||||||
| Manufacturing | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Construction | 0.7 | 0.6 | –0.5 | –0.5 | –0.9 | –0.5 | 0.0 |
| Trade, transport, accommodation and food services | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1.0 |
| Information and communication | 1.2 | 0.7 | –1.5 | –2.4 | –2.2 | –1.9 | 0.2 |
| Financial and insurance activities | 0.1 | –0.2 | –0.3 | –0.2 | –0.4 | –0.3 | –0.5 |
| Real estate activities | –1.5 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 2.2 | 1.9 |
| Business services | 1.2 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 2.5 | 2.6 |
| Public services, education, health | 0.8 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 |
| Other services | 1.6 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
The current national accounts data on employment by quarters and years and the current monthly time series are available on the labour market web pages.
Detailed data and long time series on persons in employment and the number of hours worked are available in the GENESIS-Online database in the tables on national accounts of the Federation (81000-0012 and 81000-0016) and on the labour market (13321).