The unemployment rate is stagnating. However, the labor market remains stable.
(Photo: IMAGO/photothek)
Berlin The number of unemployed in Germany fell only slightly to 2.586 million in April due to a clearly slowed down spring economic upturn. That is 8,000 fewer than in March, but 276,000 more than in April 2022, as the Federal Employment Agency announced on Friday in Nuremberg. The unemployment rate stagnated and was unchanged at 5.7 percent in April.
“The spring revival on the labor market will remain weak in April. One of the reasons for this is the sluggish economy. Overall, however, the labor market is in stable condition,” said Andrea Nahles, Chairwoman of the Federal Employment Agency (BA).
For its statistics, the Federal Agency used figures that were available up to April 13th. Last year, the number of unemployed fell by 53,000 in April compared to the previous month.
The Federal Agency attributed the significant increase compared to the previous year in part to the inclusion of Ukraine refugees in the statistics. “Even without taking Ukrainian refugees into account, unemployment would have increased compared to the previous year, but less so,” the authority said.
According to the latest data from the Federal Agency, short-time work has increased again. From April 1st to 24th inclusive, companies announced economic short-time work for 36,000 people – but it is not yet clear whether they will actually be taken advantage of.
Labor market: Companies are willing to hire new people
Current data on actual utilization is available up to February 2023. According to this, short-time work benefits were paid for 162,000 employees this month, a slight increase compared to January.
The federal government expects economic growth of 0.4 percent this year. “Measured against normal years, this is of course not satisfactory,” said Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck at the presentation of the spring projection.
Despite the sluggish economy, the willingness among companies to hire new staff is currently higher than it has been in eight months. The employment barometer rose by 0.3 to 100.2 points in April, as determined by the Munich Ifo Institute in its survey of 9,500 companies. “The increase in employment continues, although growth is slowing down, also because of the shrinking population,” said Klaus Wohlrabe, head of the Ifo surveys. “Service providers are the drivers of job creation in Germany.”
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