Press release No. 001 of 2 January 2025

• Employment up 72,000 (+0.2%) on previous year
• Pace of employment growth decelerating markedly since mid-2022
• Employment gains in 2024 only in the service sector, losses recorded in industry and construction 

WIESBADEN – On an annual average, there were roughly 46.1 million persons in employment in 2024 whose place of employment was in Germany. This was the highest number of persons in employment since German unification in 1990. According to a first estimate of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the average number of persons in employment in 2024 rose by 72,000 (+0.2%) on the previous year. This means that, with the exception of the pandemic year of 2020, the number of persons in employment has risen consistently since 2006. However, the pace of employment growth has slowed considerably since mid-2022 (see also press release no. 427 (only in German) of 15 November 2024 on employment in the 3rd quarter of 2024): after the number of persons in employment declined by 325,000 (-0.7%) at the start of the Covid-19 crisis in 2020, employment figures picked up again, initially with a slight increase of 87,000 (+0.2%) in 2021, which was then followed by strong growth of +1.4% (622,000 persons) in 2022 as a whole. Employment growth in 2023, at 336,000 additional persons in employment (+0.7%), was reduced to just half the level of the previous year and continued to slow significantly in 2024.

 

As in previous years, employment growth in 2024 was due to the immigration of foreign workers and the higher labour force participation of the domestic population. These two contributions to growth offset the dampening effects of demographic change as increasing numbers of people born in years with a high birth rate withdraw from the labour market. 

Employment gains only recorded in the service sector 

The service sector was the only contributor to the increase in the total number of persons in employment in 2024. In 2024, 75.5% of all persons in employment worked in the service sector (2023: 75.3%). Year on year, the number of persons employed rose by 153,000 (+0.4%) to 34.8 million. However, there were clear differences in the development of employment within the service sector. As in previous years, a large increase was observed in the branch of public services, education, health (+184,000 persons; +1.5%). By contrast, in business services - which include temporary employment agency activities - employment fell for the first time since 2020 (-55,000 persons; -0.9%). Small gains were recorded in the branches of financial and insurance activities (+12,000 persons; +1.1%) and information and communication (+6,000 persons; +0.4%), while the number of persons employed in the branch of trade, transport, accommodation and food services was virtually unchanged from the previous year (-1,000 persons; 0.0%).

Employment losses in industry and construction 

Outside the service sector, there was a decline in employment. In industry (excluding construction), the number of persons in employment fell by 50,000 (-0.6%) to 8.1 million in 2024. The number of workers in the construction industry fell by 28,000 (-1.1%) to 2.6 million, thereby ending the upward trend which has been observed in this sector since 2009 and which was only interrupted in 2015. Overall, 23.3% of all persons in employment worked in industry in 2024 (2023: 23.5%). 

In agriculture, forestry and fishing, the number of persons in employment was down by 3,000 compared with the previous year. This equates to a decline of 0.5% to 569,000 and is a continuation of the negative trend seen in the previous years. 

More employees, fewer self-employed 

The positive development in the German labour market overall was largely due to the number of employees which, on an annual average, rose by 146,000 (+0.3%) to 42.3 million in 2024. A major factor contributing to this increase was employment subject to social insurance. Slight losses were however recorded for the number of persons employed in marginal jobs (people employed on a low-pay or short-term basis and people in subsidised job opportunities). The downward trend observed since 2012 among self-employed persons, including family workers, continued in 2024, with their number falling by 74,000 (-1.9%) to 3.8 million compared with 2023. 

Marked increase in number of unemployed 

Provisional estimates based on the labour force survey indicate that the number of unemployed people (according to the internationally comparable ILO definition) in Germany rose markedly by 179,000 (13.4%) to 1.5 million on an annual average in 2024, 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 260,000 (+0.6%) to 47.4 million in the same period. The unemployment rate, which represents unemployed persons as a percentage of the labour force, rose from 2.8% in the previous year to 3.2% in 2024. 

Methodological notes:

The results presented are a first estimate of the development of employment in 2024 as a whole. The Federal Statistical Office will release first provisional results for employment figures for November 2024 on 3 January 2025. 

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 annual results on the numbers of persons in employment and unemployed in the domestic territory by economic sector is shown on the employment page of the Federal Statistical Office’s website. Detailed data and long time series are available from the GENESIS-Online database:annual time series on persons in employment and employees in table 81000-0015 and on the labour force including unemployed in table 81000-0011.

Labour market results are also available on Dashboard Germany at (www.dashboard-deutschland.de (only in German). This data portal of the Federal Statistical Office combines up-to-date indicators from official statistics producers and other data providers on the topics of the economy, finance, health and mobility. The portal also contains the Economic Pulse Monitor (only in German) tool for real-time economic monitoring.

Special webpage on skilled labour:

A special webpage of the Federal Statistical Office combines facts and figures on the subject of skilled labour (www.destatis.de/fachkraefte) (only in German). It provides data on demography, employment, economic activity, education and immigration. The information offered ranges from projections of the future size of the labour force to analyses of the labour supply and data on labour migration and the vocational training market. New information is added continually.