In Germany the recession is weighing on the job market

Germany’s unemployment rate remained stable at 6.1% in December, but the stagnation of Europe’s largest economy has weighed on the job market throughout 2024. This is what emerges from data published today by the Federal Agency for work (BA).

The number of unemployed Germans increased by 10,000 units, a number lower than expectations, while analysts had expected an increase of 6.2%, equal to 17,500 people. This reduction in the increase occurred despite the winter break having a generally negative impact on the labor market.

Germany seems to have recorded the second year of recession, and according to BA head Andrea Nahles, considering the whole of 2024, “the slowdown has significantly affected the job market”, which in any case “has remained mostly stable “. Year-on-year unemployment increased by 0.3%.

Observed over a longer period of time, the upward trend in unemployment is more evident, as Martin Mueller, an analyst at the public bank KfW, points out.

“From the lowest point recorded in November 2019, the number of unemployed increased by 627,000 units, equal to an increase of 29%”.

In any case, the number of employed people in Germany in 2024, as reported by the German statistical institute Destatis, stood at 46.1 million people, the highest figure since reunification in 1990. The new jobs have recorded mostly in the services sector, while they decreased in industry and construction.