German unemployment rate unchanged in March

Due to the corona pandemic, German economic performance has collapsed and public life has increasingly come to a standstill. This leaves clear traces in all areas of the economy. The labour market figures could not yet reflect the current worsening of the Corona crisis, because the figures are up to 12 March and therefore do not include the latest development.

Federal Employment Agency said, the number of unemployed fell from February to march by 60,000 to 2,335,000 due to seasonal factors. The current development on the labour market is not yet reflected in these figures, as the counting day for the statistics was before the aggravation of the Corona crisis. Adjusted for seasonal influences, a slight increase of 1,000 is calculated for March compared to the previous month. Compared to the previous year, the number of unemployed increased by 34,000. The unemployment rate has fallen by 0.2 percentage points to 5.1 percent and has not changed compared to March last year. The unemployment rate determined by the Federal Statistical Office in accordance with the ILO employment concept amounted to 3.4 percent in February.

Underemployment, which also takes into account changes in labour market policy and short-term incapacity for work, increased by 1,000 seasonally adjusted on the previous month. Overall, underemployment in March 2020 was 3,287,000 people. That was 35,000 more than a year ago.