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Corona crisis: the number of people in employment is increasing slightly

2021-08-17T12:12:30.072Z


The situation on the labor market had already improved somewhat in the spring: More people were employed and worked significantly more hours. The job search has become more difficult.


Enlarge image

Restaurant in Würzburg with labor demand: Slow recovery from the corona shock

Photo: Ralph Peters / imago images

The German labor market is recovering from the corona shock - albeit slowly.

Although the number of people in employment and the volume of work increased in the second quarter of 2021, they still failed to reach the pre-crisis level.

For the first time since the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, more unemployed people are finding a vacancy than before.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, around 44.7 million people were gainfully employed at one place of work in Germany between April and June.

Compared to the first quarter, that was a seasonally adjusted increase of 75,000 people or 0.2 percent.

This means that the number is still around half a million below the pre-crisis level in the fourth quarter of 2019. In particular, the number of self-employed people and their relatives who help out fell during the crisis.

Less short-time work leads to more working hours

However, the upswing can be seen much more clearly than in the number of employed persons in the total number of hours worked by all employees and self-employed - experts speak of the overall economic volume of work.

According to preliminary calculations by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), it rose by 6.8 percent to 14.1 billion hours compared to the second quarter of 2020.

The main reason for the sharp increase is the decline in short-time work.

While in the second quarter of 2020 there were up to around six million people who remained employed and reduced their working hours to as little as zero hours, this still applied to around two million people in the second quarter of this year.

More unemployed per job vacancy

On average, those in employment accounted for 316.2 working hours per capita, 6.8 percent more than at the height of the corona crisis a year earlier.

For comparison: Before the pandemic, people worked an average of 325.6 hours in the second quarter of 2019 and as much as 354 hours in the third quarter of 2019.

The pandemic has exacerbated the situation for applicants on the labor market.

According to the IAB, there were 6.5 unemployed people for every vacant helper position in the fourth quarter of 2020.

A year earlier there were only 3.9 unemployed per corresponding job.

For skilled workers, the ratio of 1.3 unemployed per vacant position was only slightly less favorable than before the crisis, when it was 1.0.

Conversely, the companies reported fewer difficulties in filling vacancies, shorter unplanned vacancy times and fewer compromises in terms of pay.

fdi / dpa

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-08-17

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