Press release No. 150 of 30 April 2020
Persons in employment resident in Germany, March 2020
+0.2% on the same month a year earlier
0.0% on the previous month
-0.1% on the previous month (seasonally adjusted)
WIESBADEN – Roughly 45.0 million persons resident in Germany (national concept) were in employment in March 2020 according to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Compared with March 2019, the number of persons in employment increased by 0.2% (+84,000). Employment growth was smaller than in previous months. The year-on-year change rate had been +0.3% in February 2020, +0.4% in January 2020 and +0.5% in December 2019.
Growth markedly below five-year average
According to provisional results of the employment accounts, the number of persons in employment rose by 4,000 in March 2020 on the previous month. This is a much smaller month-on-month increase than the relevant average for March in the past five years (+118,000 people). After seasonal adjustment, that is, after the elimination of the usual seasonal fluctuations, the number of persons in employment fell by 38,000 in March 2020 compared with February 2020.
The pandemic measures of the second half of March have increased the uncertainty of employment and unemployment estimates. It should be noted that according to the employment account and labour force survey concepts, short-time workers are not counted as unemployed persons but as persons in employment.
Employment in the 1st quarter of 2020 up 0.3% on the same quarter of 2019
In the 1st quarter of 2020, the average number of persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany (domestic concept) was roughly 45.0 million according to provisional calculations. The number of persons in employment was up by 147,000 or 0.3% from the 1st quarter of 2019. Detailed results for the 1st quarter of 2020 will be released on 19 May 2020.
Adjusted unemployment rate at 3.5% in March 2020
According to results of the labour force survey, 1.67 million people were unemployed in March. This was an increase of 159,000 compared with the same month a year earlier (+10.6%). The unemployment rate was 3.8%. Adjusted for seasonal and irregular effects, the number of unemployed was 1.53 million in March (+11,900). The adjusted unemployment rate was 3.5%.
| 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 | 43.854 | 0.0 |
| February | 43.657 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 43.901 | 0.1 | |
| March | 43.792 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 43.966 | 0.1 | |
| April | 43.929 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 43.999 | 0.1 | |
| May | 44.038 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 44.042 | 0.1 | |
| June | 44.104 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 44.111 | 0.2 | |
| July | 44.132 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 44.163 | 0.1 | |
| August | 44.164 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 44.207 | 0.1 | |
| September | 44.436 | 0.6 | 1.3 | 44.256 | 0.1 | |
| October | 44.529 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 44.287 | 0.1 | |
| November | 44.634 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 44.349 | 0.1 | |
| December | 44.528 | -0.2 | 1.3 | 44.411 | 0.1 | |
| 2018 | January | 44.244 | -0.6 | 1.5 | 44.501 | 0.2 |
| February | 44.296 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 44.529 | 0.1 | |
| March | 44.393 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 44.563 | 0.1 | |
| April | 44.538 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 44.608 | 0.1 | |
| May | 44.657 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 44.661 | 0.1 | |
| June | 44.675 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 44.688 | 0.1 | |
| July | 44.695 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 44.731 | 0.1 | |
| August | 44.737 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 44.785 | 0.1 | |
| September | 44.967 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 44.794 | 0.0 | |
| October | 45.078 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 44.841 | 0.1 | |
| November | 45.179 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 44.893 | 0.1 | |
| December | 45.056 | -0.3 | 1.2 | 44.935 | 0.1 | |
| 2019 | January | 44.742 | -0.7 | 1.1 | 44.984 | 0.1 |
| February | 44.802 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 45.023 | 0.1 | |
| March | 44.878 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 45.050 | 0.1 | |
| April | 45.011 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 45.083 | 0.1 | |
| May | 45.075 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 45.082 | 0.0 | |
| June | 45.057 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 45.077 | 0.0 | |
| July | 45.057 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 45.096 | 0.0 | |
| August | 45.038 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 45.089 | 0.0 | |
| September | 45.281 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 45.112 | 0.1 | |
| October | 45.376 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 45.139 | 0.1 | |
| November | 45.429 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 45.143 | 0.0 | |
| December | 45.276 | -0.3 | 0.5 | 45.154 | 0.0 | |
| 2020 | January | 44.938 | -0.7 | 0.4 | 45.171 | 0.0 |
| February | 44.958 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 45.170 | 0.0 | |
| March | 44.962 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 45.132 | -0.1 | |
| March 2020 2 | Previous month | Same month of the previous year | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2020 2 | Change | March 2019 | Change | ||
| 1 Persons in households aged 15 to 74 years. 2 Estimation based on the previous period due to limited data collection. 3 Share of unemployed in the labour force (persons in employment and unemployed) aged 15 to 74 years. 4 Share of persons in employment in all persons aged 15 to 74 years. 5 Trend cycle component (X-13-ARIMA method using JDemetra+; calculation by Eurostat). | |||||
| Original values | |||||
| in million | in % | in million | in % | ||
| Unemployed persons | 1.67 | 1.50 | 11.3 | 1.51 | 10.6 |
| Persons in employment | 42.39 | 42.75 | -0.8 | 41.88 | 1.2 |
| shares in % | in % | shares in % | in % | ||
| Unemployment rate 3 | 3.8 | 3.4 | 11.8 | 3.5 | 8.6 |
| Employment rate 4 | 68.1 | 68.7 | -0.9 | 67.5 | 0.9 |
| Adjusted results 5 | |||||
| in million | in % | in million | in % | ||
| Unemployed persons | 1.53 | 1.52 | 0.7 | 1.38 | 10.9 |
| Persons in employment | 42.50 | 42.83 | -0.8 | 41.99 | 1.2 |
| shares in % | in percentage points | shares in % | in percentage points | ||
| Unemployment rate 3 | 3.5 | 3.4 | 0.1 | 3.2 | 0.3 |
| Men | 3.6 | 4.0 | -0.4 | 3.5 | 0.1 |
| Women | 3.4 | 2.8 | 0.6 | 2.8 | 0.6 |
| Persons aged under 25 years | 5.6 | 5.5 | 0.1 | 5.7 | -0.1 |
| Persons aged 25 to 74 years | 3.2 | 3.2 | 0.0 | 2.9 | 0.3 |
| Employment rate 4 | 68.3 | 68.8 | -0.5 | 67.7 | 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:
In addition to the first calculation of the number of persons in employment for the reference month of March 2020, the monthly employment results published so far were recalculated for the year 2019 and the months of January and February 2020. At the level of the overall economy, the recalculation of the monthly results led to year-on-year change rates which were 0.1 percentage points lower for September 2019, December 2019 and January 2020 than the results published earlier, for February 2020 the change rate was down 0.2 percentage points.
The number of persons in employment from the employment accounts differs from that of the labour force survey. The differences are due to the different conceptual approaches (national or domestic concept) applied in the two statistical systems. For more information on the reasons why the results of 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 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, February and March 2020 were determined by means of an estimate based on the results for the previous period, considering current developments.
