In December 2025, about 45.9 million people who reside in Germany (domestic concept) were employed. According to provisional calculations from Destatis, the seasonally adjusted employment figure declined by only 5,000 people – effectively unchanged (-0.0 %) – compared with the previous month. Over the period from May to November 2025 the monthly average drop was 11,000 people.
Unadjusted for seasonality, employment fell by 126,000 people (-0.3 %) from November to December 2025. This decline was steeper than the December average of 2022‑2024, which had been -109,000 people.
Year‑on‑year, employment in December 2025 was down 69,000 people (-0.2 %) compared with December 2024. In October and November 2025 the YOY change lagged at -0.1 %, continuing the downward trend that has been evident since August 2025.
For the fourth quarter of 2025, provisional figures show 46.1 million employed with a workplace in Germany (domestic concept). Compared with the previous quarter, the seasonally adjusted employment count fell by 25,000 people (-0.1 %). Full Q4 2025 results will be released on 18 February 2026.
Unemployment figures from the labour‑force survey show that in December 2025, 1.60 million people were unemployed – 184,000 more (13.0 %) than in December 2024. The unemployment rate rose to 3.6 %, a 0.4 percentage‑point increase over December 2024 (3.2 %).
After correcting for seasonal and irregular effects, the unemployment figure for December 2025 was 1.68 million, 7,000 people (0.4 %) above November’s count. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8 %, according to the Federal Office.