“In retrospect, the economic downturn continuing into 2024 has had an increasingly serious impact on the labour market. “Overall, the market remained relatively resilient, though,” said the chair of the executive board of the Federal Employment Agency (BA), Andrea Nahles, at today’s monthly press conference in Nuremberg.

Average unemployment rate in 2024:
2,787,000
Change compared with 2023:
+178,000
Average annual unemployment rate compared with the previous year:
+0.3 percentage points to 6.0 percent

A significant increase in unemployment and underemployment before the backdrop of a weak economic performance

Unemployment and underemployment rose considerably in 2024 in terms of the annual average. Viewed from a longer term perspective, however, they remain at relatively low levels. The increases are attributable in particular to the weak economic performance, which has gone hand in hand with a limited increase in gainful employment and a continued fall in the demand for labour, which have made it more difficult for unemployed persons to find a new job. 
In this respect, the number of unemployed persons in Germany in comparison with the previous year rose by 178,000 to reach 2,787,000.
On a seasonally-adjusted basis, underemployment, which along with unemployment also includes short-term incapacity to work, increased by 130,000 in comparison with 2023, amounting to 3,578,000.

High levels of recourse to short-time work in 2024

Companies sought to secure jobs through short-time work due to challenging economic conditions to a greater extent than they did in the previous year. 
According to an initial statistical estimates by the Federal Employment Agency, the average number of short-time workers in 2024 (including seasonal short-time workers and transfer short-time workers) was approximately 320,000, compared with 241,000 in 2023. 
With an average loss of working hours of roughly 28 percent, the use of short-time work is calculated to have secured the jobs of approximately 90,000 employed persons and prevented their (temporary) unemployment.

Employment subject to social security contributions increases only slightly

According to the preliminary data of the Federal Statistical Office, in 2024, average annual employment (according to the domestic concept) increased by 72,000 people, amounting to 46.08 million. 
According to the statistics of the Federal Employment Agency, as an annual value, employment with social security contributions increased by 128,000 from June 2023 to June 2024, and amounted to 34.84 million. The increase is only half as much as the rise recorded in the previous year and is due solely to an increase in the employment of foreign nationals. In addition, growth in the service sector continued, while the weak economic performance in the manufacturing sector in particular led to a marked fall.
Marginal employment also showed an increase in comparison with the previous year. In June 2024, this had increased by 78,000 to 7.68 million people compared with the same month of the previous year, with the increase wholly attributable to marginal employment as side jobs.

The demand for labour continues to decline

The reported demand for new employees first started to weaken noticeably from the second half of 2022 onwards. This trend has continued over the last two years. 
With an annual average of 694,000 registered jobs, the demand for labour in 2024 was lower than it was in 2023 by 67,000 registered jobs. 
The number of new job openings, which are a better indicator of the current willingness of companies to hire, also continued to fall due to the poor economic performance. A total of 1,500,000 job openings were registered in 2024, 132,000 fewer than in 2023, and the lowest total number for 
25 years.