Employed persons

In the subsistence concept, which is based on respondents assigning themselves to a particular social group, the number of employed persons was noticeably smaller. According to this method of calculation, in the 3rd quarter of 2011 3 960 200 people were counted as employed; this is 240 000 less than the figure calculated according to the Labour Force Concept (ILO definition) which is customarily used internationally.

In the average for 2010, there were 4 096 400 employed persons (ILO definition), of whom 2 197 400 were men and 1 899 100 were women. The number of employed persons increased by 18 800 over the previous year, with the number of employed women increasing by 6 900 and the number of employed men by 11 900. The employment rate, i.e. the number of employed persons as a percentage of the population, is usually shown for the working age population, in other words for the age group between 15 and 64 years. This employment rate was 71.7% in 2010 (men: 77.1%; women: 66.4%). The employment rate continued to increase since 2004 and increased over the last year by 0.1 percentage points). The lower employment rate in 2004 may have been partly caused by the number of employed persons in 2004 being underestimated due to restructuring of the sampling, which is also suggested by the steady increase since then.

Over the past 10 years, employment trends have differed for men and women. For men, the number of employed persons stagnated, with a number of short term fluctuations, at the end-1990s level and increases continuously since 2004. The employment rate (15 to 64 years) for men remained from the end of the 1990s till 2003 at the same level, reaching 74.9% in 2004 and increased until 2008 (78.5%). After a decrease to 76.9% in 2009 it reached 77.1% in 2010. For women, on the other hand, the rise in the number of mothers employed led to an increase in the employment rates over the last ten years from 59.4% to 66.4%. A large proportion of employment growth was accounted for by part time employment, however. Overall, the 2010 employment rate was higher than the level at the end of the 1990s. The trend towards increasing labour force participation continued to be seen for women in particular.

It should be noted, however, that the large scale restructuring of the Labour Force Survey which took place in early 2004 entailed a noticeable disruption to the time series, which affects both longer term comparisons and, above all, the comparison of 2004 with 2003 figures.

Note: Under the Labour Force Concept (ILO definition) , a person is considered to be employed if he or she worked for at least one hour in the reference week, or did not work due to holiday, illness, etc. but is normally in employment. A person is considered to be unemployed if he or she is not employed in the above sense, is taking active steps to look for work, and is able to start work at short notice. In the subsistence concept, respondents specify their social status themselves. In principle, the data relates to the population living in private households without persons performing military or community service. People with valid employment contracts who are drawing maternity/paternity or child benefit are included.

Please consult our German website for tables and charts containing further information.