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 1st quarter of 2010 3 827 100 people were counted as employed; this is 196 000 less than the figure calculated according to the Labour Force Concept (ILO definition) which is customarily used internationally.

In the average for 2009, there were 4 077 700 employed persons (ILO definition), of whom 2 185 500 were men and 1 892 100 were women. Due to the worse economic situation the number of employed persons decreased by 12 300 over the previous year, with the number of employed women increasing (by 24 200) and the number of employed men decreasing (by 36 600). 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 71.6% in 2009 (men: 76.9%; women: 66.4%). The employment rate continued to increase since 2004 and decreased over the last year by 0.5 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. Over the previous year the number of employed men decreased. 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 increasing since then (2008: 78.5%). Over the last year it decreased to 76.9%. 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 2009 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.