The situation on the German labor market continues to cloud in view of the economic consequences of the Ukraine war. As the Federal Employment Agency (BA) announced on Wednesday, the number of unemployed fell further in November: by 8,000 to 2.434 million. However, the decline is weaker than usual for a November. And taking out the usual seasonal fluctuations, the number of unemployed has even increased - by 17,000.

This was also the case in the two previous months. In October, the Federal Employment Agency for the first time did not attribute this development to the fact that many refugee Ukrainians registered as unemployed. Rather, it was the consequences of the economic slowdown. Andrea Nahles, chairwoman of the board, said that there were signs of "a certain trend reversal". In other words, high inflation and the sharp rise in energy costs are starting to leave their mark on the labor market.

Number of people in employment at record level

This can also be seen in the new figures for November in the fact that companies are again registering cyclical short-time work for more employees: between November 1 and 24 for 82,000 employees. BA board member Daniel Terzenbach nevertheless described the situation on Wednesday as "stable" and pointed out that employment was increasing significantly.

In fact, despite the recession expected in the coming months, the number of people in work rose to a record level in October, the Federal Statistical Office reported Wednesday: to 45.7 million. That was 113,000, or 0.2 percent, more than in September. The increase was thus slightly above the October average of the three pre-crisis years 2017 to 2019. Even seasonally adjusted, employment continued to rise in October, and somewhat more significantly than in the three previous months. According to BA data, employment subject to social security contributions also increased further in September - more recent data are not yet available.

Image by Isabela Bela