Some 45.6 million people were employed in Germany in the first quarter of this year, a marginal decline (0.1%) on the previous quarter, with 61,000 fewer people employed, according to the country’s statistics office, Destatis.
As the data showed, the first quarter of 2026 marked the third consecutive quarterly decline in employment figures, following similar contractions in the third and fourth quarters of 2025.
On an unadjusted basis, meanwhile, employment fell by 486,000 people compared with the fourth quarter of 2025, a sharper seasonal drop than usual and more than 100,000 larger than the average decline recorded at the start of the previous three years.
On a year-on-year basis, employment declined by 157,000 people, or 0.3%, compared with the first quarter of 2025.
A more entrenched downturn
As Destatis noted, the data confirms that Germany’s labour market downturn, which started to emerge in mid-2025, is becoming more entrenched after years of post-pandemic growth.
On a sector-by-sector basis, manufacturing recorded the largest losses, with employment falling by 171,000 people or 2.1% year-on-year. Construction employment also declined, by 27,000 people, while agriculture, forestry and fishing posted smaller losses.
Although services employment overall still increased slightly by 45,000 jobs, growth was concentrated in a limited number of sectors. Public services, education and healthcare remained the strongest area of expansion, adding 181,000 jobs, while financial and insurance services also posted modest gains.
Private sector
However, several major private-sector services industries continued to weaken. Employment in trade, transport and hospitality fell by 81,000 people, while business services (including recruitment and temporary staffing) lost 72,000 jobs. Information and communication employment also declined by 24,000 positions.
The report also showed a broader weakening in the labour market structure. Total employee numbers fell by 120,000 year-on-year to 42 million, while the number of self-employed workers declined by 37,000 to 3.6 million.
Despite lower employment, total hours worked across the economy remained stable at 15.7 billion hours, because average working hours per employee increased slightly during the quarter. Read more here.
