Press release No. 459 of 30 November 2023

Persons in employment resident in Germany, October 2023
0.0% on the previous month (seasonally adjusted)
+0.2% on the previous month (not seasonally adjusted)
+0.6% on the same month a year earlier

WIESBADEN – Roughly 46.1 million persons resident in Germany were in employment in October 2023. According to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the seasonally adjusted number of persons in employment rose slightly by 14,000 (0.0%) on the previous month. In September 2023, the number of persons in employment increased by 3,000 compared with the previous month. Overall, the level of seasonally adjusted employment has only risen slightly, by 10,000 persons (0.0%), since June 2023.

Without seasonal adjustment, the number of persons in employment in October 2023 rose by 90,000, or +0.2%, on September 2023. This month-on-month increase was lower than in October 2022 (+116,000 people). Nevertheless, the number of persons in employment reached a new all-time high in October 2023. This comes after employment numbers in September 2023 beat the previous record set in November 2022 (45.9 million) by 134,000 people, or 0.3%, and reached the 46 million mark for the first time.

Slower upward trend year on year

Compared with October 2022, the number of persons in employment in October 2023 was up by 0.6%, or 265,000. The year-on-year rate of change was also +0.6% (+291,000) in September 2023. At the beginning of the year it was +1.0% (+432,000 persons). Compared with the previous year, the long-term upward trend on the labour market therefore continued at a slower pace.

Unemployment rate at 3.1% in October 2023

According to results of the labour force survey, 1.40 million people were unemployed in October 2023. This represented an increase of 66,000, or 4.9%, compared with October 2022. The unemployment rate rose to 3.1% (October 2022: 3.0%).

Adjusted for seasonal and irregular effects, the number of unemployed stood at 1.36 million in October 2023, which was an increase of 7,000 on the previous month. Compared with the previous month, the adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.1%.

Methodological notes:

The differing comparative periods must be taken into account in all press releases on short-term indicators. Short-term economic monitoring focuses on comparisons with the previous month or previous quarter. These reflect short-term economic trends. Year-on-year comparisons, by contrast, enable long-term comparisons of levels and are hardly influenced by seasonal fluctuations.

The number of persons in employment from the employment accounts differs from that of the labour force survey, which has been integrated into the microcensus. The differences are mainly due to the different conceptual approaches (national or domestic concept) of the two statistical systems. Background information on the differences in the results is available in the explanatory notes on the statistics. For information on the microcensus and the labour force survey please refer to the relevant theme page on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.

Persons in employment and unemployed persons are counted according to the employment status concept of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Therefore, the unemployment figures shown here differ from registered unemployment as determined and published by the Federal Employment Agency in accordance with the German Social Code. In the European Statistical System, the results of the labour force surveys are used as a standard basis for calculating unemployment rates.

More information:

A table containing monthly results on the number of persons in employment (unadjusted values and seasonally adjusted values) from the employment accounts can be found on the employment page of the Federal Statistical Office’s website. Tables with results on unemployment from the labour force survey, including the unemployment rate, are available on the unemployment page. Detailed data and long time series are available from the GENESIS-Online database. Data on persons in employment from the employment accounts are available in tables 13321-0001 (months), 13321-0002 (quarters) and 81000-0011 (years). Monthly data on persons in employment and unemployed persons from the labour force survey can be found in tables 13231-0001 to 13231-0003.