The German labour market continues to recover from the coronavirus crisis. In October 2021, around 2,377 million people in the federal republic were without a job - 88.000 fewer than in September and 383.000 fewer than a year ago. 

Unemployment rate in Germany falls 0,2 percent in October 2021

Despite delivery bottlenecks putting pressure on the economy, Germany’s labour market is continuing its road to recovery. The Federal Employment Agency (BA) announced on Thursday that the number of unemployed people in Germany fell once again in October, by 88.000 to 2,377 million. The overall unemployment rate fell by 0,2 points to 5,2 percent. 

Seasonal fluctuations mean that there is usually a downswing in the unemployment rate in the autumn, but the decline is stronger than usual for this time of year - which experts are taking as a sign that the labour market is visibly leaving the coronavirus crisis behind. 

However, it has not yet returned to its pre-crisis level: in October 2019, only around 2,2 million people were drawing unemployment benefits. In a recently-published forecast, several leading economic research institutes predicted that the pre-pandemic level would only be reached once again in the coming year. 

“The consequences of the corona crisis on the labour market are still visible, but are getting smaller,” said BA boss Detlef Scheele. “Unemployment and underemployment are falling sharply, employment and business demand for new staff are increasing, and short-time work continues to decline.” 

Training market not recovering as quickly

However, he noted that the situation on the training market isn’t so satisfactory: in the last 12 months, 51.1.300 apprenticeship positions have been registered with job centres and employment agencies in Germany, 19.000 fewer than in the year before. 433.500 applicants took advantage of advice from BA agencies, 39.400 fewer than in the same period last year. 

“Despite improving, the results are still very much behind those before the pandemic and we are still facing major challenges,” he said.