Berlin: The German Federal Statistical Office reported stagnation in the country's labour market in the second quarter of this year, with the workforce increasing by only about 10,000 people. This represents the weakest growth since the job surge in summer 2022, when 679,000 additional employees joined the labour force after the COVID-19 crisis.
According to Bahrain News Agency, the number of people in employment remained largely unchanged from April to June at around 46 million, compared with the first quarter of this year. After seasonal adjustments, employment rose by only about 7,000.
Total hours worked amounted to about 14.4 billion in the second quarter, down 0.5% from a year earlier. The average working time per employee also fell by 0.5% to about 315.4 hours, based on data from the Institute for Employment Research.
The manufacturing and construction sectors recorded declines in employment, with manufacturing down by 141,000 people (-1.7%) year-on-year, and construction down by 21,000 (-0.8%). These losses were offset by an increase of 178,000 in the services sector compared with the previous year.