As in September, the usual autumn recovery on the labor market hardly gained any momentum in October. The number of unemployed is significantly higher than a year ago.
The number of unemployed people in Germany fell by 20,000 to 2.607 million in October compared to September due to seasonal factors. That is 165,000 more unemployed than in October a year ago, the Federal Employment Agency announced on Thursday in Nuremberg. The unemployment rate in October was unchanged from September at 5.7 percent. The usual autumn revival on the labor market was comparatively small – last year there was a decline of 43,000 unemployed people in the same period. The deadline for collecting the October figures was October 12th.
“The German economy has been more or less standing still for a good year now,” said the Federal Agency’s CEO, Andrea Nahles. “After such a long time, this is not without visible consequences for the labor market. However, given the economic data, it is holding up comparatively well,” said Nahles.
Hundreds of thousands of job vacancies
The demand for workers remains high. In October, 749,000 job vacancies were registered with the Federal Agency, 98,000 fewer than a year ago.
With a view to the apprenticeship market, Nahles called for more willingness to compromise, both among young people on the applicant side and among the training companies. It has become more difficult to bring together applicants for and providers of apprenticeships.
From October 2022 to September 2023, a total of 545,000 vocational training positions were reported to employment agencies and job centers – roughly the same number as in the previous year. The number of applicants also remained largely stable at 422,000. The Federal Agency announced that the decline in the number of applicants that has been noticeable for years has stopped this year. Nevertheless, this year there are only 80 applicants for every 100 registered company training positions, a similar rate to last year.
Source: Stern
