By 2025, there will be an average of 248..1 working days across the country, which is 0.7 days less than in the current year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Tuesday.
The reason for the decline is the elimination of the extra working day on February 29, which was accounted for in the 2024 leap year. The number of working days also has an impact on the country’s economic performance. As a rule of thumb, a one-day reduction in working days translates to a roughly 0.1 percentage point decline in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Meanwhile, the average of 248.1 working days in 2025 is the lowest value since 2019, when there were 247.8 working days. This is partly due to the fact that public holidays and festivals like Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve tend to fall on weekdays in the next year. Since the number of public holidays varies from state to state, the average number of working days in the country, with a decimal place, is the result.
Looking at the post-reunification period, the highest value was 252.8 working days in 2004, and the lowest was 246.9 days in 1991. In 1995, the “Day of Atonement and Penance” was abolished as a public holiday in all states except Saxony, leading to an increase in working days overall.