With the beginning of the usual autumn revival, the number of unemployed in Germany fell below 2.5 million again.
"Despite rising prices and concerns about energy shortages, the job market remains stable overall," said the head of the Federal Employment Agency (BA), Andrea Nahles, on Friday in Nuremberg.
However, the demand for labor is falling slightly at a very high level.
The agency recorded 2.486 million unemployed in September.
That was 62,000 fewer than in August, but 21,000 more than a year ago.
A decrease is usual in September after the end of the summer holidays and with the start of the new training year.
Adjusted for seasonal fluctuations, the number of unemployed rose by 14,000 month-on-month.
This is also related to the recording of unemployed Ukrainian refugees, the BA explained: "Without people with Ukrainian nationality, the development would have been much better." The refugees are entitled to Hartz IV payments and are therefore registered with the job centers.
A month earlier, the number of people in employment stagnated at around 45.4 million, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Friday.
"This means that the seasonally adjusted number of people in employment has not increased for the first time in a year and a half." Adjusted for seasonal fluctuations, there was even a minimal decline of 6,000. In the months of April to July, there was still a monthly increase of 34,000 to 20,000 people most recently.
Even without seasonal adjustment, the number of people in employment with 7,000 people in August fell by a similar amount in July.
Compared to the August average of the three pre-crisis years 2017 to 2019, however, there was an increase of 22,000 people.
“November 2019, with 45.5 million people in employment, marked the previous employment record in Germany.”