In the first quarter of 2025, approximately 45.8 million people were employed in Germany, according to provisional calculations by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The number of employed persons decreased seasonally adjusted by 7,000 individuals (0.0%) compared to the previous quarter. This marks a third consecutive quarter of decline, following decreases of 12,000 individuals (0.0%) in the fourth quarter of 2024 and 51,000 individuals (-0.1%) in the third quarter of 2024.
Without adjusting for seasonal effects, the number of employed persons decreased by 431,000 individuals (0.9%) compared to the previous year. Although a decrease in employment is typical in the first quarter of a year due to seasonality, the decline at the beginning of 2025 was significantly stronger than the average over the years 2022 to 2024 (-316,000 individuals; -0.7%).
Compared to the first quarter of 2024, the number of employed persons decreased by 60,000 individuals (-0.1%). The increase in employment compared to the previous year had reached its peak after the Corona crisis in the second quarter of 2022 (+717,000 individuals; +1.6%). Since then, the employment growth has steadily slowed down. In the third quarter of 2024, the previous year’s level was only exceeded by 26,000 individuals (+0.1%). A decrease was then recorded in the fourth quarter of 2024 (-19,000 individuals; 0.0%), which continued in the first quarter of 2025.
While the number of employed persons in the service sector increased (+107,000 individuals; +0.3%) in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the previous quarter, the employment outside the service sector decreased by a total of 167,000 individuals (-1.5%). Within the service sector, the development of employment was quite diverse: the Public Services, Education and Health sector continued its long-term upward trend and increased significantly by 192,000 individuals (+1.6%).
The second-largest increase within the service sector in the first quarter of 2025 was in the Finance and Insurance Services sector with +17,000 individuals (+1.6%). In the Other Services (e.g., associations and interest groups), a slight increase of 7,000 individuals (+0.2%) was recorded.
On the other hand, the number of employed persons in the Information and Communication sector continued to decrease by 7,000 individuals (-0.4%). This sector saw an end to the employment growth since the fourth quarter of 2015 and throughout the Corona crisis in the third quarter of 2024. In the Trade, Transportation and Hospitality sector, the decrease increased to 29,000 individuals (-0.3%). In the Business Services sector, which includes the Temporary Employment and Labor Leasing sectors, the number of employees decreased by 75,000 individuals (-1.2%), similar to the decrease seen in the fourth quarter of 2024.
In the Manufacturing Industry (excluding the Construction sector), the number of employed persons continued to decline (-127,000 individuals; -1.6%) in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the previous year. The Construction sector also saw a decrease, with 34,000 individuals (-1.3%) fewer employed and in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, the number of employed persons decreased by 6,000 individuals (-1.1%).
That the employment did not decrease further compared to the previous year was primarily due to the positive development of the legally insurable employment. Employment losses were observed among those with exclusively marginal activities (low-paid and short-term employed individuals, as well as persons in work opportunities). In total, the number of employees increased slightly by 29,000 (+0.1%) to 42.1 million individuals in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter of the previous year. On the other hand, the number of self-employed individuals, including family members who help in the business, continued to decline. Their number decreased by 89,000 individuals (-2.3%) to 3.7 million.
According to Eurostat, the European Statistical Office, the employment rate calculated using European harmonized methods increased by 0.6% in the 27 countries of the European Union (EU) and by 0.8% in the Eurozone in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the previous year.