Press release No. 001 of 3 January 2022

WIESBADEN – On an annual average there were roughly 44.9 million persons in employment in 2021 whose place of employment was in Germany. According to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the average number of persons in employment in 2021 was at the same level (+7,000; 0.0%) as in the previous year. In 2020, the coronavirus crisis had stopped the upward trend in employment, which had lasted for over 14 years, and had led to a decrease of 370,000 people (-0.8%).

It is assumed that the employment growth observed since 2006 would 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.

Diverging trends in economic sectors

Overall, employment in the service sector in 2021 increased by a total 94,000 people (+0.3%) on 2020, reaching roughly 33.7 million people. In 2020, the number had decreased by 197,000 people, or 0.6%, on 2019. However, the development differed considerably between the individual economic sectors in 2021. The largest employment gains were recorded for public services, education, health (+249,000 people or +2.2%) and information and communication (+33,000 people or +2.4%), that is, in the sectors that had seen employment growth even in the crisis year of 2020. Business services, which include temporary employment agency activities, saw an increase of 33,000 people (+0.5%), following larger losses in 2020 (-120,000 people; -1.9%). Larger employment losses were again recorded in trade, transport, accommodation and food services (-176,000 people, or -1.8%), as was the case in the previous year (-218,000 people; -2.1%).

Outside the service sector, overall employment decreased. In industry (excluding construction), the number of persons in employment was down by 96,000 (-1.2%) to roughly 8.1 million in 2021. Very positive contributions came again from construction, which recorded an increase of 31,000 persons in employment (+1.2%) to roughly 2.6 million. This shows that the good situation in the construction industry continues. 5.8% of all persons in employment worked in the construction industry in 2021.

In agriculture, forestry and fishing, the number of persons in employment was down by 22,000 on 2020, which was a marked decrease of 3.8% to 558,000.

Employment subject to social insurance contributions increases, marginal employment and self-employment decrease

The total of employees increased by 115,000 (+0.3%) to roughly 41.0 million on an annual average in 2021. The main factor contributing to this increase was the positive development of employment subject to social insurance contributions, as is shown by the structural data available until the third quarter. However, larger employment losses were recorded in the number of persons employed in marginal jobs (people employed on a low-pay basis or on a short-term basis, people in job opportunities), as was the case in 2020. Among self-employed including family workers, the downward trend observed for 10 years continued in 2021. Their number fell by 108,000 to 3.9 million (-2.7%) on 2020.

Please note that short-time workers are counted as persons in employment in accordance with the employment accounts and labour force survey concepts.

Number of unemployed markedly down

Provisional estimates based on the labour force survey indicate that the number of unemployed people (according to the internationally comparable ILO definition) in Germany fell markedly by 159,000 (9.6%) to 1.5 million on an annual average in 2021, year on year. The active labour force available in the labour market, defined as the total of persons in employment and unemployed persons, decreased by 173,000 (-0.4%) to 46.3 million in the same period. The unemployment rate, which represents unemployed persons as a percentage of the labour force, was down to 3.3% from 3.6% 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
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	44,251	615	8,175	2,479	32,982
2018	44,858	608	8,311	2,515	33,424
2019	45,268	599	8,366	2,547	33,756
2020	44,898	580	8,180	2,579	33,559
2021	44,905	558	8,084	2,610	33,653
Change in % on the corresponding period of the previous year
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	1.5
2018	1.4	-1.1	1.7	1.5	1.3
2019	0.9	-1.5	0.7	1.3	1.0
2020	-0.8	-3.2	-2.2	1.3	-0.6
2021	0.0	-3.8	-1.2	1.2	0.3
Percentage shares of the economic sectors in the total number of persons in employment
1991	100	3.0	28.2	7.4	61.3
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
2021	100	1.2	18.0	5.8	74.9

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. 2021: 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	45,752	1,621	44,131	39,858	4,273
2018	46,187	1,468	44,719	40,496	4,223
2019	46,499	1,374	45,125	40,974	4,151
2020	46,467	1,664	44,803	40,765	4,038
2021	46,294	1,505	44,789	40,859	3,930
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	1.6	-1.6
2018	1.0	-9.4	1.3	1.6	-1.2
2019	0.7	-6.4	0.9	1.2	-1.7
2020	-0.1	21.1	-0.7	-0.5	-2.7
2021	-0.4	-9.6	0.0	0.2	-2.7

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.