The number of unemployed rose to 2.7 million in December. Unemployment rate at 5.9 percent.
The corona crisis caused unemployment in Germany to rise for the first time since 2013. On an annual average in 2020, the number climbed by 429,000 to just under 2.7 million, as the Federal Employment Agency (BA) announced on Tuesday. “The slump in the labor market in spring is still having an effect,” said BA boss Detlef Scheele.
The consequences of the corona pandemic and the measures to contain it are still very clearly visible. “However, the stabilizing effect of short-time work has secured employment and prevented higher unemployment.”
In December, the number of unemployed in Germany rose by 8,000 compared to the previous month to 2.707 million. Compared to December 2019, the number rose by 480,000, as the Federal Employment Agency announced. The unemployment rate remains at 5.9 percent.
“The number of unemployed people rose in December, but not as much as usual in this month,” said Scheele. “The demand from businesses is stabilizing at a low level,” he emphasized.
The measures in the fight against the corona pandemic are driving short-time working in Germany up again. From December 1 to 28, the Federal Employment Agency in Nuremberg received advertisements on short-time work for 666,000 people. In November there were 627,600 advertisements. “The advertisements for short-time work have increased again – but only to a limited extent,” explained Scheele.
In March, at the height of the first corona shutdown, it was over ten million. As a rule, short-time work is not implemented for all registrations. In fact, 1.99 million people were on short-time work in October – after almost six million in April. More recent data on the short-time work actually implemented are not yet available.
The corona crisis is also affecting the training market. From October to December, 73,000 young people were still looking for an apprenticeship. That is 12,000 more than a year ago. There were 72,000 registered training positions.
