“All in all, the labour market is stable. Although unemployment and underemployment have increased again on a seasonally adjusted basis and short-time work is also increasing again, employment is growing significantly,” explained Daniel Terzenbach, Regional Director of the Federal Employment Agency (BA), at today’s monthly press conference in Nuremberg.

Unemployed persons in November:
-8,000 to 2,434,000
Unemployed persons compared with the previous year:
+117,000
Unemployment rate compared with the previous month:
unchanged at 5.3 percent

Unemployment, underemployment and economic inactivity

In November 2022, unemployment fell by 8,000 persons to 2,434,000 compared with the previous month. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of unemployed persons increased by 17,000. Compared with November last year, the number of unemployed persons is 117,000 higher. As in October, the unemployment rate in November was 5.3 percent, which is 0.2 percent higher compared with the same month last year. In October, the unemployment rate determined according to the ILO employment concept by the Federal Statistical Office was 2.9 percent.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, underemployment, which, in addition to unemployment, takes changes in labour market policy and short-term incapacity to work into account, increased markedly by 27,000 compared with the previous month. This can also be accounted for by the increased participation of Ukrainian refugees in integration courses, however. In November 2022, underemployment amounted to 3,275,000 people. That is 184,000 more than a year ago.

Short-time work

Before the start of short-time work, companies are required to submit a notification of the expected loss of work. According to the current data on the verified notifications, from 1st to 24th November inclusive, cyclical short-time work was registered for 82,000 people.

The latest data on the actual take-up is available up to September 2022. According to the initially projected data from the Federal Employment Agency, in that month, the cyclical short-time allowance was paid to 157,000 workers. The take-up of cyclical short-time work has therefore more than doubled compared with the previous month.

Economic activity and employment

According to the Federal Statistical Office, in October 2022, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of economically active persons (according to the inland concept) increased by 32,000 compared with the previous month. At 45.89 million persons, it was 455,000 higher than in the previous year. On a seasonally adjusted basis, from August to September 2022, employment with social security contributions increased by 42,000. Compared with the previous year, in September, this increased by 576,000 to 34.90 million employees, according to the projections of the BA. In September 2022, 7.40 million people were in low-paid “mini job” employment, 157,000 more than in the same month last year. Of this total, for 4.13 million people, this low-paid employment was their only job, and for 3.26 million it was just a part-time position. The increase in comparison with the previous year is largely due to those employed in part-time jobs for low wages.

The demand for labour

Although the demand for new staff remains high, it has clearly weakened recently. In this respect, 823,000 job vacancies were registered with the BA, 15,000 more than one year ago. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of jobs registered with the BA decreased by 7,000 compared with the previous month. In November 2022, the BA Jobs Index (BA X) – an indicator for the demand for staff in Germany, which also takes the number of registered jobs and new jobs into account – remained unchanged at 128 points.

Cash benefits for unemployment and required assistance

In November 2022, 695,000 people received unemployment benefit, 18,000 fewer than a year ago. In November, the number of persons able to work and entitled to benefits in terms of the Basic Income Support for Job Seekers (SGB II) was 3,804,000. In comparison with November 2021, this was an increase of 191,000 people. Therefore, 7.0 percent of people of working age living in Germany were in need of support.