Germany’s jobless count rose by 170,000 in December 2024 compared to the previous year, with a total of 2.807 million job seekers, according to the Federal Agency for Work (BA) on Friday. Seasonally adjusted, the number of jobless increased by 10,000 compared to the previous month. The unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage points to 6.0%.
“The winter pause on the labor market has begun in December, as is usual, so labor market slack and unemployment have increased” said BA Chief Andrea Nahles on Friday in Nuremberg.
Labor market slack, which includes labor market policy, short-term work, and temporary disability, rose seasonally by 5,000 compared to the previous month, and stood at 3.581 million in December 2024, an increase of 103,000 compared to the previous year.
The BA registered 654,000 job openings in the last month of the year, a decrease of 59,000 compared to the previous year. The BA Job Index (BA-X), a gauge of labor demand in Germany, remained unchanged at 106 points in December 2024, but fell by nine points compared to the previous year.
A total of 924,000 people received unemployment benefits in December 2024, an increase of 91,000 compared to the previous year. The number of eligible recipients of basic social benefits stood at 3.962,000 in December, an increase of 34,000 compared to the previous year, with 7.2% of the working-age population in Germany in need of assistance.