Germany has 211,000 fewer people in work than a year ago as labour market stalls
In September, around 45.60 million people were in employment in Germany – 0.5% fewer than a year earlier. Seasonally adjusted, the figure was almost unchanged from August.
Symbolic image · Photo: Erdumlauf / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (cropped and resized)
The number of people in employment in Germany continues to fall year on year. In September 2026, around 45.60 million people resident in Germany had a job, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said. That is 211,000 people, or 0.5%, fewer than a year earlier. Seasonally adjusted, the figure was almost unchanged from August (minus 4,000); unadjusted, it rose by 172,000 due to the usual autumn upturn.
From January to August, the seasonally adjusted number of people in employment had fallen by an average of 19,000 per month. For the third quarter, the statisticians report an average of around 45.67 million people employed at their place of work – 57,000 or 0.1% fewer than in the previous quarter.
According to the labour force survey, the unemployment rate in September was 4.1% (a year earlier: 4.0%). 1.79 million people were unemployed. This figure follows the International Labour Organization definition and differs from the registered unemployment reported by the Federal Employment Agency.