Germany’s labor force reached a record high of 46.1 million in the annual average of 2024, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Thursday. This number of employed persons has never been seen since the reunification in 1990. The average number of employed persons increased by 72,000 people (+0.2%) compared to the previous year.
The number of employed persons has been steadily growing since 2006, except for the Corona year of 2020. The growth rate, however, slowed down significantly since mid-2022. After the initial decline of 325,000 people (-0.7%) at the beginning of the Corona crisis in 2020, the number of employed persons increased by 87,000 (+0.2%) in 2021 and 622,000 (+1.4%) in 2022. In 2023, the growth rate slowed down to 336,000 (+0.7%), and in 2024, it weakened further.
The main drivers of the increase in employment were the influx of foreign workers and the rising employment rate of the domestic population. These two growth impulses overcame the dampening effects of demographic change, which leads to a stronger exit of the working-age population from the labor market.
In 2024, the service sectors were the only ones to contribute to the growth of the employed workforce. 75.5% of all employed persons worked in the service sectors in 2024 (2023: 75.3%). The number of employed persons in the service sectors increased by 153,000 people (+0.4%) to 34.8 million.
Within the service sectors, the employment development was diverse: There was a significant increase in the public service, education, and health sector (+184,000 people, +1.5%), while the number of employed persons in the corporate services, including temporary work, decreased for the first time since 2020 (-55,000 people, -0.9%).
There were small increases in the finance and insurance services (+12,000 people, +1.1%) and the information and communication sector (+6,000 people, +0.4%), while the number of employed persons in the trade, transportation, and hospitality sector remained almost unchanged (-1,000 people, 0.0%).
Outside of the service sectors, employment declined. According to the statisticians, the number of employed persons in the manufacturing sector (excluding construction) decreased by 50,000 (-0.6%) to 8.1 million, and in the construction sector, the number of employed persons decreased by 28,000 (-1.1%) to 2.6 million, ending the upward trend that had started in 2009 and was only interrupted in 2015.
In the agricultural sector, the number of employed persons decreased by 3,000 people (-0.5%) to 569,000, continuing the negative trend of the past years.
The decisive factor for the overall positive development on the German labor market was the increase in the number of employees, which rose by 146,000 people (+0.3%) to 42.3 million. The main driver of this growth was the socially insured employment. There were, however, slight losses in the number of marginally employed and the self-employed, including family members, who had a decrease of 74,000 people (-1.9%) to 3.8 million, continuing the downward trend that has been ongoing since 2012.
The number of unemployed in Germany increased significantly by 179,000 people or 13.4% to 1.5 million, according to preliminary estimates based on the labor force survey. The number of employable people, defined as the sum of employed and unemployed, increased by 260,000 people (+0.6%) to 47.4 million. The unemployment rate, measured as the percentage of unemployed to the number of employable people, increased from 2.8% to 3.2%.