The weak economic development in Germany is also increasingly affecting the labor market. Unlike in previous years, the number of unemployed rose slightly in June.
The number of unemployed in Germany has increased slightly. Like the Federal Employment Agency (BA) in their labor market report announced that the agency registered a total of 2.555 million unemployed in June. That is 11,000 more than in May and 192,000 more than a year ago. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.5 percent. Compared to the same month last year, it increased slightly by 0.3 percentage points.
“We are now also feeling the more difficult economic conditions on the job market,” said BA boss Andrea Nahles. “Unemployment is rising and job growth is losing momentum.”
An increase in registered unemployment in June is rather unusual. However, there was one in 2020 during the corona pandemic and in 2022 when the Ukrainian refugees became the responsibility of the job center. However, the Federal Agency made it clear that unemployment would have increased in June even without taking Ukrainian refugees into account.
Short-time work at a low level, high staff shortage
Short-time work continues to be at a comparatively low level. In April, short-time work benefits were paid to 135,000 people. In March it was 160,000 and in February 151,000. More recent data is not available for the actual use of short-time work: from June 1st to 26th, 45,000 people were notified of short-time work – but it is unclear for how many this actually applies.
Irrespective of the economic problems, there is still a shortage of staff in Germany. In June, 769,000 job vacancies were registered with the BA. Although that is around 100,000 fewer than in the previous year, there is still a comparatively large number of unfilled jobs.
Nearly 400,000 searches apprenticeship
From October 2022 to June 2023, 374,000 applicants for a training position registered with the employment agencies and the job centers. Although that was 2,000 fewer than last year, the decline is only slight compared to previous years.
Of the applicants, 147,000 young people had found neither a training place nor an alternative in June. At the same time, 497,000 company training places were registered, 1,000 more than a year ago. Of these, 256,000 were still unoccupied.
The BA states in its report that the training market is still in motion in June. Therefore, the figures only allow a preliminary assessment of the development in the current reporting year.