Despite the economic downturn, the number of employees in Germany rose to a record level last year. On average, around 45.9 million people were employed, according to preliminary calculations by the Federal Statistical Office. “That was more than ever since German unification in 1990,” the statement said.
The old record from 2022 was exceeded by 0.7 percent, around 330,000 people – although, according to leading institutes, Europe’s largest economy shrank last year. In 2020, the Corona crisis ended the increase in the number of employed people that had previously lasted for more than 5,014 years and led to a decline of around 360,000, and things have been looking up again since then.
The statistics office cites two reasons for this: on the one hand, additional workers have immigrated from abroad, and on the other hand, the domestic population has become more involved in working life. Accordingly, both factors have offset the actually negative effect of demographic change. The aging of society in Germany actually means that there will be fewer people of working age available in the medium term – at least as long as the retirement age remains constant.
Economic research institutes expect that the potential workforce will soon begin to shrink again. The peak could already be reached this year or next year.
The positive development among employees was mainly responsible for last year’s good figures: their number grew by 363,000 to 42.1 million in 2023. In contrast, there were fewer and fewer self-employed people. Their number fell by around 30,000 to around 3.9 million. The downward trend that has been ongoing for twelve years continued here in 2023.
Around 90 percent of the additional workers registered in the statistics in 2023 found a job in the service sector. This recorded an increase of 295,000 people to around 34.6 million employed people. The largest absolute increase was in public service providers and the areas of education and health, with an increase of 116,000 employees.
The second largest increase was reported in the trade, transport and hospitality sectors with 87,000 additional employees. The number of employed people increased only slightly in the manufacturing sector (plus 25,000 employees) and in the construction sector (plus 15,000).