The boom of the German labour market continues. Over the past year the number of workers in the country has reached a record 43.4 million people.
The German employment increased in period from January to December with 425,000, or 1% on year-on-year basis, to the highest number since reunification of the country.
Thus continuing for over 10 years upward trend extended. The growth from 2016 coincides with the expectations of the statistics office. Additional jobs occurred mainly in the service sector, but also in education and health. The increase was also reported in trade and hospitality. The number of workers in manufacturing remained unchanged from 2015, while in agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector has declined.
According to the data to the record employment has contributed also the government program for foreign workers, which was adopted after the strong increase of asylum seekers from the Western Balkans in 2015. Since most of them are headed to the country in search of work, the Federal Office for Migration and refugees (BAMF) had rejected almost 100% of the requests for asylum. The new provisions, enabled the citizens of Western Balkan countries to arrive in Germany as labour migrants, provided that during the previous two years were not supported by the German authorities as refugees.
Among foreigners in Germany, the highest proportion of workers account at Bulgarians and Romanians to 62% in August and the trend is towards growth. For years, the German labour market is in top form thanks to sound economic development.
Continued growth in number of employees is closely related to population aging. According to the statistical office only a higher proportion of the labour force participation can balance the negative demographic effects.
The number of unemployed people in Germany decreased according to statisticians in the past year by 160,000 to just under 1.8 million. The unemployment rate internationally comparable basis declined by 4.3% in 2015 to 4.0% in 2016. With that Germany is the country with the lowest unemployment rate in the EU after the Czech Republic.
SOURCE: Economics Wire
