According to the Federal Statistical Office, in 2024, approximately 3.1 million people in Germany, aged 15 to 74, expressed a desire to work, despite not being immediately available for the labor market and not actively seeking employment. This so-called ‘silent reserve’ comprises individuals without a job who, although not currently available, still wish to work. The total unutilized labor potential in 2024 was 4.6 million, consisting of 3.1 million people in the silent reserve and almost 1.5 million unemployed individuals.
The silent reserve can be categorized into three groups. The first category includes individuals who are actively seeking work, but are temporarily unavailable due to caregiving responsibilities, for instance and can only take up a job within a period of two weeks (silent reserve A). The second category consists of people who would like to work and are available on short notice, but are not currently seeking employment, often due to a lack of suitable job opportunities (silent reserve B). The third category encompasses non-working individuals who neither seek a job nor are immediately available, but still express a general desire to work (silent reserve C). These individuals are the farthest from the labor market.
In 2024, the silent reserve in Germany consisted of approximately 380,000 people in silent reserve A, 930,000 in silent reserve B and nearly 1.8 million in silent reserve C.
Notable gender differences emerged in the main reasons for inactivity in the labor market, particularly in the middle-aged group of 25- to 59-year-olds. For example, 31.3 percent or 359,000 women in this age group in the silent reserve cited caregiving responsibilities as the reason they could not take up a job at the moment, whereas only 4.9 percent or around 35,000 men in this age group reported the same. On the other hand, health limitations, particularly among middle-aged men, played a significant role, but were also frequently mentioned by women in this age group, with 35.5 percent of men and 22 percent of women in the silent reserve citing this as the main reason for their inactivity.
In 2024, 58.5 percent of the people in the silent reserve had a middle or high level of qualification, meaning they had completed a vocational training or had a high school or university entrance qualification. Among women, 61.3 percent had a middle or high level of qualification, while among men, 54.9 percent did. In contrast, 41.5 percent of the silent reserve had a low level of qualification, with the highly qualified making up a proportion of 20.3 percent of the silent reserve, according to the Federal Statistical Office.