Despite the acute risk of recession, the number of employed people in Germany rose above the 46 million mark for the first time in the third quarter. From July to September, 46.04 million people were employed, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday.
“The number of employed people reached a new historical high,” it said. The previous high was 45.96 million and was reached at the end of 2022. “At the same time, the 46 million threshold for a quarterly result was exceeded for the first time since German unification,” the statisticians added. Europe’s largest economy is threatened with a recession: in the third quarter, gross domestic product shrank by 0.1 percent – mainly because consumers held back on consumption due to a loss of purchasing power.
The increase in employment is “further proof that stagnation has not yet reached the labor market,” said ING chief economist Carsten Brzeski. However, the number of hours worked has fallen significantly since the pandemic. “So that means there are more and more part-time jobs – voluntary or involuntary.” However, the signs on the labor market would change. “There are significantly fewer job vacancies than a year ago, companies are more cautious about their hiring plans and the unemployment rate is increasing ever so slightly,” said Brzeski. “We should have seen the best in the labor market at the moment.”
Due to demographic developments in 2025, more people are likely to leave the workforce than join new ones – around 200,000 per year, predicts the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW). The IfW already assumes a net immigration of around 200,000 workers from abroad, which is considered to be rather high in historical comparison.