Press release 166 / 2016-05-18
Positive employment trend continues in the 1st quarter of 2016
WIESBADEN – In the first quarter of 2016, the number of persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany amounted to roughly 43.1 million according to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).
Compared with the same period a year earlier, the number of persons in employment increased considerably by 533,000 or 1.3%. This means that the positive employment trend continued at the beginning of the year. In the fourth quarter of 2015, the year-on-year increase had been somewhat smaller (+1.0%).
Compared with the previous quarter, the number of persons in employment was down by 384,000 (–0.9%) in the first quarter of 2016. A decrease in employment in the first quarter of a year is a common phenomenon. Due to the mild winter, however, the decrease was smaller in 2016 than the average decline recorded for the past five years (–462,000 people). After seasonal adjustment, that is, after the elimination of the usual seasonal fluctuations, the relevant number increased by 181,000 or 0.4% compared with the previous quarter.
In the first quarter of 2016, the rise in the total number of persons in employment from the first quarter of 2015 was again mainly due to the growth in the service sector. The largest absolute employment gains within the service sector were shown for public services, education, health (+177,000 people or +1.7%), followed by business services (+150,000 people or +2.7%) and trade, transport, accommodation and food services (+144,000 people or +1.5%).
In industry (excluding construction), the number of persons in employment was up by 16,000 (+0.2%) and in construction by 25,000 (+1.1%) in the first quarter of 2016 compared with the same quarter a year earlier. In agriculture, forestry and fishing, the number of persons in employment decreased by 19,000 (–3.1%).
The number of employees increased by a total of 574,000 (+1.5%) in the first quarter of 2016 on the first quarter of 2015, reaching 38.75 million. The number of self-employed including family workers decreased by 41,000 (–0.9%) to 4.31 million in the same period.
page source https://www.destatis.de/
