Press release No. 054 of 18 February 2019
WIESBADEN – 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 increased by 507,000 or 1.1%. Growth rates declined in the course of 2018. In the first quarter of 2018 the year-on-year rate of increase was 1.5%, in the second quarter 1.3% and in the third quarter 1.2%.
Compared with the previous quarter, the number of persons in employment rose by 159,000 (+0.4%) in the fourth quarter of 2018. An increase in employment in the last quarter of a year is a common seasonal phenomenon. On an average of the last five years, employment rose by 173,000 people in the last quarter of each year. After seasonal adjustment, that is, after the elimination of seasonal fluctuations, the relevant number of people increased by 110,000 (+0.2%) in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared with the third quarter.
Employment growth was supported by an increase in the number of employees, which rose by 589,000 (+1.5%) to slightly over 41 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 year on year. The number of employees subject to social insurance contributions increased again, whereas the total of marginally employed people (including persons in marginal or short-term employment) continued to decrease. The number of self-employed including family workers decreased by 82,000 (-1.9%) to under 4.2 million over the same period.
Service sector contributed most to growth
In the fourth quarter of 2018, the rise in the total number of persons in employment on the same quarter a year earlier was mainly due to the growth in the service sector. The largest absolute employment gains were recorded for public services, education, health (+179,000 people or +1.6%), followed by trade, transport, accommodation and food services (+89,000 people or +0.9%) and information and communication (+44,000 people or +3.4%). In industry (excluding construction), the number of persons in employment increased by 147,000 or 1.8% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and in construction it was up by 38,000 or +1.5% compared with the same quarter a year earlier. In contrast, employment was down slightly in agriculture, forestry and fishing (-2,000 people or -0.3%).
Total hours worked up 1.6 percent
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 rose by 0.5% to 342.1 hours in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared with the same quarter of 2017. The total number of hours worked, that is, the number of persons in employment multiplied by the hours worked per person in employment, was up by 1.6% to 15.5 billion hours in the same period.
Note on the results published earlier
In addition to calculating first results of the number of persons in employment and the number of hours worked for the fourth quarter of 2018, the results published so far for the first three quarters of 2018 were recalculated. For this purpose, all additional sources of employment statistics that had become available by the time of recalculation were taken into account. At the level of the overall economy, the recalculation resulted in year-on-year change rates which only in the third quarter are by 0.1 percentage points lower than the result published earlier. The annual result of 44.8 million persons in employment and the year-on-year change rate of +1.3%, which were communicated in the press release of 2 January 2019 (No. 01/19), have not been altered by the recalculation.
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).
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. | ||||||
| 2015 | 43,071 | 38,711 | 4,360 | 58,997 | 1,369.8 | |
| 2016 | 43,642 | 39,308 | 4,334 | 59,477 | 1,362.8 | |
| 2017 | 44,269 | 39,975 | 4,294 | 60,222 | 1,360.4 | |
| 2018 | 44,838 | 40,619 | 4,219 | 61,095 | 1,362.6 | |
| 2015 | 1st qtr | 42,513 | 38,149 | 4,364 | 14,885 | 350.1 |
| 2nd qtr | 42,997 | 38,626 | 4,371 | 13,911 | 323.5 | |
| 3rd qtr | 43,290 | 38,912 | 4,378 | 15,091 | 348.6 | |
| 4th qtr | 43,485 | 39,158 | 4,327 | 15,109 | 347.5 | |
| 2016 | 1st qtr | 43,087 | 38,748 | 4,339 | 14,856 | 344.8 |
| 2nd qtr | 43,563 | 39,212 | 4,351 | 14,304 | 328.4 | |
| 3rd qtr | 43,842 | 39,490 | 4,352 | 15,215 | 347.1 | |
| 4th qtr | 44,076 | 39,782 | 4,294 | 15,101 | 342.6 | |
| 2017 | 1st qtr | 43,729 | 39,427 | 4,302 | 15,351 | 351.1 |
| 2nd qtr | 44,195 | 39,877 | 4,318 | 14,237 | 322.1 | |
| 3rd qtr | 44,479 | 40,167 | 4,312 | 15,424 | 346.8 | |
| 4th qtr | 44,672 | 40,429 | 4,243 | 15,210 | 340.5 | |
| 2018 | 1st qtr | 44,369 | 40,133 | 4,236 | 15,402 | 347.1 |
| 2nd qtr | 44,782 | 40,539 | 4,243 | 14,591 | 325.8 | |
| 3rd qtr | 45,020 | 40,787 | 4,233 | 15,646 | 347.5 | |
| 4th qtr | 45,179 | 41,018 | 4,161 | 15,456 | 342.1 | |
| Change in % on the corresponding period of the previous year | ||||||
| 2015 | 0.9 | 1.2 | -1.2 | 1.1 | 0.2 | |
| 2016 | 1.3 | 1.5 | -0.6 | 0.8 | -0.5 | |
| 2017 | 1.4 | 1.7 | -0.9 | 1.3 | -0.2 | |
| 2018 | 1.3 | 1.6 | -1.7 | 1.4 | 0.2 | |
| 2015 | 1st qtr | 0.7 | 0.9 | -1.4 | 0.6 | -0.1 |
| 2nd qtr | 0.8 | 1.1 | -1.4 | 1.1 | 0.2 | |
| 3rd qtr | 1.0 | 1.2 | -1.1 | 0.9 | -0.1 | |
| 4th qtr | 1.2 | 1.5 | -0.9 | 2.1 | 0.9 | |
| 2016 | 1st qtr | 1.4 | 1.6 | -0.6 | -0.2 | -1.5 |
| 2nd qtr | 1.3 | 1.5 | -0.5 | 2.8 | 1.5 | |
| 3rd qtr | 1.3 | 1.5 | -0.6 | 0.8 | -0.4 | |
| 4th qtr | 1.4 | 1.6 | -0.8 | -0.1 | -1.4 | |
| 2017 | 1st qtr | 1.5 | 1.8 | -0.9 | 3.3 | 1.8 |
| 2nd qtr | 1.5 | 1.7 | -0.8 | -0.5 | -1.9 | |
| 3rd qtr | 1.5 | 1.7 | -0.9 | 1.4 | -0.1 | |
| 4th qtr | 1.4 | 1.6 | -1.2 | 0.7 | -0.6 | |
| 2018 | 1st qtr | 1.5 | 1.8 | -1.5 | 0.3 | -1.1 |
| 2nd qtr | 1.3 | 1.7 | -1.7 | 2.5 | 1.1 | |
| 3rd qtr | 1.2 | 1.5 | -1.8 | 1.4 | 0.2 | |
| 4th qtr | 1.1 | 1.5 | -1.9 | 1.6 | 0.5 | |
| Sector of economic activity 2 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2018 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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). qtr = quarter | |||||||
| Persons in 1,000 | |||||||
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 619 | 616 | 616 | 580 | 655 | 633 | 590 |
| Industry, excluding construction | 8,111 | 8,196 | 8,337 | 8,259 | 8,298 | 8,374 | 8,414 |
| including: | |||||||
| Manufacturing | 7,542 | 7,621 | 7,758 | 7,684 | 7,719 | 7,794 | 7,828 |
| Construction | 2,451 | 2,490 | 2,529 | 2,476 | 2,528 | 2,559 | 2,559 |
| Trade, transport, accommodation and food services | 9,971 | 10,081 | 10,180 | 10,062 | 10,171 | 10,231 | 10,259 |
| Information and communication | 1,242 | 1,279 | 1,318 | 1,299 | 1,312 | 1,324 | 1,334 |
| Financial and insurance activities | 1,177 | 1,151 | 1,133 | 1,137 | 1,131 | 1,130 | 1,135 |
| Real estate activities | 467 | 471 | 474 | 473 | 472 | 474 | 478 |
| Business services | 5,920 | 6,059 | 6,117 | 6,048 | 6,119 | 6,166 | 6,134 |
| Public services, education, health | 10,730 | 10,929 | 11,117 | 11,054 | 11,087 | 11,090 | 11,240 |
| Other services | 2,954 | 2,997 | 3,017 | 2,981 | 3,009 | 3,039 | 3,036 |
| Change in % on the corresponding period of the previous year | |||||||
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | -2.8 | -0.5 | 0.0 | -0.3 | 0.6 | -0.6 | -0.3 |
| Industry, excluding construction | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.8 |
| including: | |||||||
| Manufacturing | 0.4 | 1.0 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.8 |
| Construction | 1.0 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Trade, transport, accommodation and food services | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.9 |
| Information and communication | 2.2 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2.4 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 3.4 |
| Financial and insurance activities | -0.8 | -2.2 | - 1.6 | -1.7 | -1.6 | -1.5 | -1.5 |
| Real estate activities | -0.4 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.8 |
| Business services | 2.6 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.1 |
| Public services, education, health | 2.2 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 1.6 | 1.6 |
| Other services | 0.7 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
Due to conversion work on the internet pages, an online publication containing further information is not available at present. A copy will be sent by email, if it is requested using our contact form.
