German Recovery Forges Ahead As Employment Rate Rises

There are further signs that Germany's labor market is recovering well after the coronavirus crisis. The number of people in employment and the volume of work increased in the second quarter of 2021, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

Photo Insert: A medical hygiene worker in a hospital in Germany

According to the Federal Statistical Office, around 44.7 million people were employed in Germany during the period from April to June. That is a seasonally adjusted increase of 75,000 people, an increase of 0.2 percent when compared with the same period last year.

According to preliminary calculations by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the overall volume of work in the economy - the hours worked by all employees and the self-employed - rose sharply by 6.8 percent to 14.1 billion hours compared with the second quarter of 2020.

One reason for this is the reduced use of short-time work, which has fallen from a maximum of 6 million people since the second half of March 2020 to around 2 million.

According to the data, each individual worked an average of 316.2 hours in the second quarter, which was 6.8 percent more than at the height of the coronavirus crisis a year earlier.

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