Status: 03/02/2022 11:01 a.m
The labor market continues to be robust: According to the Federal Employment Agency, the number of unemployed fell to 2.428 million in February. The figures do not yet reflect the possible consequences of the Ukraine war.
The upward trend on the German labor market continued until immediately before the outbreak of war in the Ukraine. According to the Federal Employment Agency (BA) in Nuremberg, 2.428 million people were registered as unemployed in February. That was 34,000 fewer than in January.
In a monthly comparison to February of the previous year 2021, this means a decrease of 476,000. The unemployment rate in Germany fell by 0.1 percentage points to 5.3 percent compared to January. In February 2021 it was one percentage point higher at 6.3 percent.
Scheele: War in Ukraine not yet shown
BA boss Detlef Scheele pointed out that “the war in Ukraine is not yet reflected in the current indicators”. Until February, the labor market in Germany “continued its upward trend,” added Scheele. The cut-off date for the February statistics was February 14th.
Economists expect that the Russian attack on Ukraine will slow down the recovering economy in Germany. The labor market could therefore continue to be robust.
Current data on short-time work is available up to February 24th. After that, the BA registered 18,000 advertisements for 201,000 people in the period. According to the authority, these numbers will increase until the end of the month, but are likely to be below the level in January, when there were 29,000 ads for 327,000 people. Experience has shown that fewer companies take advantage of short-time work than indicated.
The outbreak of the corona pandemic two years ago had put a heavy strain on the German labor market. In addition to a significant increase in unemployment, millions of employees also had to go on short-time work.