Press release No. 120 of 28 March 2025
Persons in employment resident in Germany, February 2025
0.0% on the previous month (seasonally adjusted)
0.0% on the previous month (not seasonally adjusted)
-0.1% on the same month a year earlier
WIESBADEN – Roughly 45.6 million persons resident in Germany were in employment in February 2025. According to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the seasonally adjusted number of persons in employment decreased slightly by 10,000 people (0.0%) from the previous month, following a slight decline of 9,000 in January 2025. Compared with the preceding month, employment increased by an average of 7,000 persons in the months of October to December 2024.
Without seasonal adjustment, there was a similar drop in the number of persons in employment (-16,000, or 0.0%) in February 2025 on January 2025. By contrast, month-on month employment in February increased by 27,000 people, on average, in 2022 to 2024.
Year-on-year decrease in employment continues
Compared with February 2024, the number of persons in employment in February 2025 fell by 57,000 (-0.1%). The year-on-year rate of change was also -0.1% in December 2024 and January 2025, after standing at 0.0% in the months of September, October and November 2024.
Adjusted unemployment rate at 3.5% in February 2025
According to results of the labour force survey, 1.63 million people were unemployed in February 2025. This represented an increase of 39,000, or 2.4%, compared with February 2024. Compared with the previous month, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.6%.
Adjusted for seasonal and irregular effects, the number of unemployed stood at 1.56 million in February 2025, which was an increase of 5,000 people on January 2025 (+0.3%). The adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.5% compared with the previous month.
More information:
A table containing monthly results on the number of persons in employment (unadjusted values and seasonally adjusted values) from the employment accounts is shown on the employment page of the Federal Statistical Office’s website. Tables with unemployment results (only in German) from the labour force survey including the unemployment rate are also available on this page. Detailed data and long time series are provided in 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 (overview), 13231-0002 (unemployed persons, persons in employment and economically active population) and 13231-0003 (unemployment rates).
Results for the labour market can also be found on the Economic Dashboard, which is part of Dashboard Germany (www.dashboard-deutschland.de) (only in German). In this data portal, the Federal Statistical Office brings together up-to-date indicators from official statistics producers and other data providers on the topics of the economy, finance, the labour market, construction, housing, energy and Ukraine. The portal also contains the Economic Pulse Monitor (Pulsmesser für die Wirtschaft) tool (only in German) 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, 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.
