In June, unemployment in Germany fell to its lowest level in 26 years
Thus, according to the latest statistics, the number of unemployed residents of Germany is now only 2.473 million people, which is 25 thousand less than the May figures and 142 thousand less than the figures for June last year. The unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 5.5%. Thus, Germany has achieved the lowest unemployment rate since June 1991.
Also pleasing are the statistical data related to the number of employed residents of the Federal Republic: 44.1 million people, which is 648 thousand more than a year ago. At the same time, 32 million people had jobs with full payment of insurance contributions (plus 37 thousand). Never before in the history of unified Germany has such a high level of employment been recorded.
According to the chairman of the board of the Federal Employment Agency (BA), Detlef Scheele, the main reason for this positive development of the German labor market is "a sharp increase in the need of enterprises for new employees against the backdrop of an increase in orders." And this need continues to grow steadily.
At the beginning of this month, 731 thousand job offers were recorded in Germany, which is 66 thousand more than the data from a year ago. The German economy grew by 0.6% in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the previous three months, when GDP growth was 0.4%. Compared to the same period last year, the country's GDP in January-March of this year grew by 2.9% – after 1.3% in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Commenting on these figures, the head of the Federal Ministry of Labor, SPD representative Andrea Nahles, said that today's labor market provides people with "a huge number of opportunities." "The probability of losing a job today is low, as never before, and conversely, the opportunity to find a job is now very high," the politician noted. At the same time, Frau Nahles emphasized that "the key to positive development in the labor market remains the improvement of qualifications and professional retraining" of German residents.
According to the Federal Employment Agency, the unemployment rate among people without vocational education was about 20%, which is almost five times higher than the share of unemployed among those who have such education. The lowest unemployment rate is recorded among people with higher education – only 2.6%.