Press release No. 001 of 4 January 2021

WIESBADEN – On an annual average in 2020, there were roughly 44.8 million persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany. According to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the number of persons in employment in 2020 was lower by 477,000, or 1.1%, than in 2019 and also lower by 76,000, or 0.2%, than in 2018. In 2019, the rate of increase was +0.9%. This means that the employment increase observed for over 14 years in Germany, including during the global economic and financial crisis of 2008/2009, ended in the corona crisis. However, the upward employment trend recorded since 2007 would probably have ended soon even without the coronavirus crisis because the labour force potential is diminishing due to demographic change. The offsetting effect on this development caused by higher labour force participation of the domestic population and the immigration of foreign labour is decreasing.

Biggest job losses in service sector

Overall, the largest decrease in the number of persons in employment in 2020 was recorded for the service sector, that is, -281,000 people or -0.8% on 2019. A total of roughly 33.5 million people were employed in the service branches. There, the largest employment losses were recorded for trade, transport, accommodation and food services (-207,000 persons in employment or -2.0%) and business services (-156,000 persons in employment or -2.5%), which include temporary employment. Employment gains were observed for public services, education, health (+153,000 persons in employment or +1.4%).

In industry (excluding construction), the number of persons in employment was down by 191,000 (-2.3%) to roughly 8.2 million in 2020. Positive contributions came from construction, which recorded an increase of 17,000 persons in employment (+0.7% to roughly 2.6 million). In agriculture, forestry and fishing, the number of persons in employment was down by 22,000 on 2019 (-3.7% to 577,000).

Number of employees subject to social insurance contributions stable due to short-time work, number of self-employed markedly down

The number of employees decreased by 324,000 (-0.8%) to roughly 40.8 million on an annual average in 2020. Marginally employed people were particularly affected (people employed on a low-pay basis or on a short-term basis, people in job opportunities). Employment remained stable among employees subject to social insurance contributions, which is especially due to short-time work. Among self-employed including family workers, the downward trend observed for 9 years intensified in the corona crisis year of 2020. Their number fell by 153,000 to 4.0 million (-3.7%) on 2019.

When considering these results, it should be noted that, according to the employment accounts and labour force survey concepts, short-time workers are not counted as unemployed but as persons in employment.

Number of unemployed increased by over a third

Provisional estimates based on the labour force survey indicate that the number of unemployed people (according to the internationally comparable definition) in Germany rose markedly by 474,000 (+34.5%) to 1.85 million on an annual average in 2020, year on year. The active labour force available in the labour market, defined as the total of persons in employment and unemployed persons, increased by 42,000 (+0.1%) to 46.5 million in the same period. The unemployment rate, which represents unemployed persons as a percentage of the labour force, was up to 4.0% from 3.0% in the previous year.

Persons in employment whose place of employment is in Germany,
by economic sector ¹

Year	Persons in employment, total	Agriculture, forestry and fishing	Industry, including energy	Construction	Service activities 2
1 Annual averages. 2 Trade, hotel and restaurant services, transport, financial, renting and business activities, other service activities.
Persons in 1,000
2007	40,272	663	7,841	2,305	29,463
2008	40,838	657	8,023	2,295	29,863
2009	40,903	652	7,849	2,306	30,096
2010	41,048	645	7,709	2,325	30,369
2011	41,544	650	7,858	2,368	30,668
2012	42,019	647	7,989	2,401	30,982
2013	42,350	641	8,019	2,415	31,275
2014	42,721	638	8,064	2,427	31,592
2015	43,122	633	8,082	2,426	31,981
2016	43,661	623	8,103	2,450	32,485
2017	44,262	615	8,175	2,479	32,993
2018	44,868	608	8,311	2,515	33,434
2019	45,269	599	8,360	2,552	33,758
2020	44,792	577	8,169	2,569	33,477
Change in % on the corresponding period of the previous year
2007	1.7	0.0	1.4	1.7	1.8
2008	1.4	-0.9	2.3	-0.4	1.4
2009	0.2	-0.8	-2.2	0.5	0.8
2010	0.4	-1.1	-1.8	0.8	0.9
2011	1.2	0.8	1.9	1.8	1.0
2012	1.1	-0.5	1.7	1.4	1.0
2013	0.8	-0.9	0.4	0.6	0.9
2014	0.9	-0.5	0.6	0.5	1.0
2015	0.9	-0.8	0.2	0.0	1.2
2016	1.2	-1.6	0.3	1.0	1.6
2017	1.4	-1.3	0.9	1.2	1.6
2018	1.4	-1.1	1.7	1.5	1.3
2019	0.9	-1.5	0.6	1.5	1.0
2020	-1.1	-3.7	-2.3	0.7	-0.8
Percentage shares of the economic sectors in the total number of persons in employment
1991	100	3.0	28.2	7.4	61.3
2011	100	1.6	18.9	5.7	73.8
2012	100	1.5	19.0	5.7	73.7
2013	100	1.5	18.9	5.7	73.8
2014	100	1.5	18.9	5.7	73.9
2015	100	1.5	18.7	5.6	74.2
2016	100	1.4	18.6	5.6	74.4
2017	100	1.4	18.5	5.6	74.5
2018	100	1.4	18.5	5.6	74.5
2019	100	1.3	18.5	5.6	74.6
2020	100	1.3	18.2	5.7	74.7

Labour force, unemployed persons and persons in employment whose place of residence is in Germany ¹

Year	Labour force	Unemployed persons 2	Residents in employment
			total	employees	self-employed 3
1 Annual averages. 2 Results of the labour force survey (microcensus) according to the labour force concept of the International Labour Organization (ILO); persons in households aged 15 to 74 years. 2020: provisional estimates based on the labour force survey. 3 Including unpaid family workers.
Persons in 1,000
1991	41,104	2,172	38,932	35,369	3,563
2005	43,711	4,506	39,205	34,824	4,381
2006	43,623	4,104	39,519	35,083	4,436
2007	43,679	3,473	40,206	35,737	4,469
2008	43,814	3,018	40,796	36,317	4,479
2009	43,957	3,098	40,859	36,367	4,492
2010	43,831	2,821	41,010	36,495	4,515
2011	43,899	2,399	41,500	36,973	4,527
2012	44,186	2,224	41,962	37,440	4,522
2013	44,467	2,182	42,285	37,790	4,495
2014	44,741	2,090	42,651	38,192	4,459
2015	44,987	1,950	43,037	38,632	4,405
2016	45,333	1,774	43,559	39,218	4,341
2017	45,762	1,621	44,141	39,868	4,273
2018	46,195	1,468	44,727	40,504	4,223
2019	46,497	1,374	45,123	40,971	4,152
2020	46,539	1,848	44,691	40,692	3,999
Change in % on the corresponding period of the previous year
2005	0.8	9.2	-0.1	-0.5	2.8
2006	-0.2	-8.9	0.8	0.7	1.3
2007	0.1	-15.4	1.7	1.9	0.7
2008	0.3	-13.1	1.5	1.6	0.2
2009	0.3	2.7	0.2	0.1	0.3
2010	-0.3	-8.9	0.4	0.4	0.5
2011	0.2	-15.0	1.2	1.3	0.3
2012	0.7	-7.3	1.1	1.3	-0.1
2013	0.6	-1.9	0.8	0.9	-0.6
2014	0.6	-4.2	0.9	1.1	-0.8
2015	0.5	-6.7	0.9	1.2	-1.2
2016	0.8	-9.0	1.2	1.5	-1.5
2017	0.9	-8.6	1.3	1.7	-1.6
2018	0.9	-9.4	1.3	1.6	-1.2
2019	0.7	-6.4	0.9	1.2	-1.7
2020	0.1	34.5	-1.0	-0.7	-3.7

More information:
Detailed data and long time series on persons in employment and unemployed people are available in the GENESIS-Online database in the tables on persons in employment persons in employment (81000-0015) and on the labour force including unemployed persons (81000-0011).

The current data and brief methodological descriptions regarding employment and unemployment calculations are available at Unemployment or Employment.

Major results of the labour force projection 2020 are contained in the press release no. 436 of 2 November 2020. The projection comprises six variants on the development of the labour force potential until 2060.