Press release No. 066 of 28 February 2020

Persons in employment resident in Germany, January 2020
+0.5% on the same month a year earlier
-0.8% on the previous month
0.0% on the previous month (seasonally adjusted)

WIESBADEN – Roughly 45.0 million persons resident in Germany (national concept) were in employment in January 2020 according to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Compared with January 2019, the number of persons in employment increased by 0.5% (+238,000). The year-on-year change rate, which had been +1.1% in January 2019, declined to +0.6% until December. This means that employment growth continued but slowed again slightly at the beginning of the new year.

Usual seasonal decline in employment on December 2019

According to provisional results of the employment accounts, the number of persons in employment decreased by 347,000, or 0.8%, in January 2020 month on month, which is a usual seasonal phenomenon. This was roughly the average month-on-month decline observed around the turn of the year over the past five years (-341,000 people). After seasonal adjustment, that is, after the elimination of the usual seasonal fluctuations, the relevant number increased by 18,000 in January 2020 compared with December 2019.

Adjusted unemployment rate at 3.2% in January 2020

According to results of the labour force survey, 1.49 million people were unemployed in January. This was an increase of 84,000 compared with the same month a year earlier (+6.4%). The unemployment rate was 3.4%. Adjusted for seasonal and irregular effects, the number of unemployed remained unchanged from the previous month of December, standing at 1.41 million. The adjusted unemployment rate in January 2020 was 3.2%, as it had been in the previous month.

I. Employment accounts
Persons in employment whose place of residence is in Germany ¹

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 (national 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 X13-ARIMA method using JDemetra+.
2017	January	43.584	-0.8	1.4	43.860	0.1
	February	43.657	0.2	1.3	43.906	0.1
	March	43.792	0.3	1.3	43.965	0.1
	April	43.929	0.3	1.3	43.995	0.1
	May	44.038	0.2	1.3	44.038	0.1
	June	44.104	0.1	1.3	44.107	0.2
	July	44.132	0.1	1.4	44.160	0.1
	August	44.164	0.1	1.3	44.201	0.1
	September	44.436	0.6	1.3	44.254	0.1
	October	44.529	0.2	1.3	44.287	0.1
	November	44.634	0.2	1.3	44.351	0.1
	December	44.528	-0.2	1.3	44.416	0.1
2018	January	44.244	-0.6	1.5	44.509	0.2
	February	44.296	0.1	1.5	44.538	0.1
	March	44.393	0.2	1.4	44.562	0.1
	April	44.538	0.3	1.4	44.602	0.1
	May	44.657	0.3	1.4	44.656	0.1
	June	44.675	0.0	1.3	44.682	0.1
	July	44.695	0.0	1.3	44.727	0.1
	August	44.737	0.1	1.3	44.778	0.1
	September	44.967	0.5	1.2	44.792	0.0
	October	45.078	0.2	1.2	44.841	0.1
	November	45.179	0.2	1.2	44.896	0.1
	December	45.056	-0.3	1.2	44.941	0.1
2019	January	44.742	-0.7	1.1	44.997	0.1
	February	44.802	0.1	1.1	45.039	0.1
	March	44.878	0.2	1.1	45.047	0.0
	April	45.012	0.3	1.1	45.075	0.1
	May	45.076	0.1	0.9	45.074	0.0
	June	45.057	0.0	0.9	45.068	0.0
	July	45.057	0.0	0.8	45.093	0.1
	August	45.064	0.0	0.7	45.107	0.0
	September	45.305	0.5	0.8	45.134	0.1
	October	45.408	0.2	0.7	45.172	0.1
	November	45.472	0.1	0.6	45.188	0.0
	December	45.327	-0.3	0.6	45.210	0.0
2020	January	44.980	-0.8	0.5	45.228	0.0

II. Labour force survey
Unemployed persons and persons in employment ¹

	January 5 2020	Previous month		Same month of the previous year
		December 2019	Change	January 2019	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). 5 Schätzung auf Basis der Vorperiode aufgrund eingeschränkter Datenerhebung.
Original values
	in million		in %	in million	in %
Unemployed persons	1.49	1.40	6.4	1.48	0.7
Persons in employment	42.50	42.57	-0.2	42.03	1.1
	shares in %		in %	shares in %	in %
Unemployment rate 2	3.4	3.2	6.3	3.4	0.0
Employment rate 3	68.3	68.6	-0.4	67.7	0.9
Adjusted results 4
	in million		in %	in million	in %
Unemployed persons	1.41	1.41	0.0	1.40	0.7
Persons in employment	42.43	42.36	0.2	41.92	1.2
	shares in %		in percentage points	shares in %	in percentage points
Unemployment rate 2	3.2	3.2	0.0	3.2	0.0
Men	3.7	3.7	0.0	3.5	0.2
Women	2.7	2.7	0.0	2.9	-0.2
Persons aged under 25 years	5.6	5.7	-0.1	5.7	-0.1
Persons aged 25 to 74 years	3.0	3.0	0.0	3.0	0.0
Employment rate 3	68.2	68.2	0.0	67.6	0.6

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 to 13231-0003 (months)

Methodological notes:

The results provided by the employment accounts and the labour force survey for the number of persons in employment are not the same. The differences are due to the different conceptual approaches applied in the two statistical systems. For more information on the reasons why the results from the labour force survey differ from those of the employment accounts please refer to the explanatory notes on the statistics.

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 accordance with the German Social Code. In the European Statistical System, the results of the labour force survey are used as a standard basis for calculating unemployment rates.

The microcensus and the integrated labour force survey were redesigned both in technical and in methodological terms; the new approach was introduced at the beginning of 2020. For technical reasons, data collection has been limited since the beginning of this year. Therefore the results for January 2020 were estimated based on the results of the previous period.