Berlin, January 2nd (EFECOM). – Germany had an annual average of around 46 million people in employment, practically remaining at the level of 2024, when the country recorded the record number of people in work since reunification in 1990, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported on Friday.
“The average annual number of employed people in 2025 was 5,000 people (0.0%) slightly below the level of the previous year,” said Destatis in a statement on its first estimates of average employment in Germany in 2025.
“With the exception of the 2020 pandemic, the number of employed people has risen steadily since 2006,” says the Destatis statement. The pace of employment growth in Europe’s largest economy and the world’s third largest has “slowed significantly since the beginning of 2024.”
Overall, job growth ended 2024 with gains of 52,000, up 0.1% from 2023, while 2025 was a year in which employment numbers were “slightly below the previous year.”
Destatis highlighted that the services sector maintained employment levels in 2025, while other sectors such as industry and construction recorded a loss of personnel.
If the services sector ended 2025 with 34.9 million workers, 164,000 more than in 2024, the decline in industry was 143,000 (-1.8%) and in construction 23,000 (-0.9%).
According to Destatis, there are 7.9 million industrial jobs in Germany, representing 22.8% of the country’s workforce, as well as 2.6 million construction workers.
Destatis data, on the other hand, shows a lower number of self-employed people, as this group fell by 38,000 people in 2025, 1% less than in 2024, to 3.7 million people.
The number of employees reached an annual average of 42.3 million people, after an increase of 33,000 employees, 0.1% more than in 2024. EFECOM
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