Around 45.8 million people were working in Germany in the first quarter of the year. The Federal Statistical Office has recorded a decline in the number of employed people. Is this unusual?
In the first quarter of this year, the number of employed people in Germany fell by a good 400,000 people to 45.8 million. Although a decline in the months of January to March is seasonal, it was greater than in the previous two years, as the Federal Statistical Office reported.
Compared to the start of 2023, 129,000 more people were now employed. The service sectors once again contributed to growth, while fewer people found jobs in industry and construction. The number of self-employed people, including helping family members, also fell again by 1.0 percent to 3.9 million people. They were compared to 41.9 million employees (+0.4 percent).
According to preliminary figures from the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB) of the Federal Employment Agency, each employed person worked an average of 344.5 hours in the three months. This was a decrease of 0.8 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year. The overall economic volume of work also fell: by 0.6 percent to 15.8 billion hours.
Source: Stern
