Looks like Germany’s economy will take its time to recover this year. In May 2024, unemployment in Germany increased more than expected, as disclosed by the Federal Labour Office recently. There has been an increase of 25,000 unemployed people last month, while experts had predicted a rise of only about 10,000.
At 5.9 per cent, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained constant.
Despite the challenges, the labour market showed resilience, with employers retaining their workers amidst dearth of skilled workers. That means, it is likely that employers will continue to get the best and maximum out of their existing employees before hiring new ones when economic activity improves.
In May 2024, Germany saw about seven lakh job vacancies, which was 65,000 less than May 2023.
While there were 200 professions facing a skills shortage in May 2023, the number has reduced to 183 in May 2024. The shortage of skills in the structural engineering and façade construction space has improved. Situation has also improved in the aerospace tech space.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.4 per cent in Germany in March 2024, from 2.9 per cent in March 2023. There were 1.42 million unemployed people in the country as of March, which was 18.1 per cent compared to March 2023.
Compared with March 2023, the number of employed persons in March 2024 had risen 0.2 per cent or by 100,000.
