The number of unemployed people rose far less than expected this month, reflecting a resilience in the German labour market, despite a surge in job cuts recently by major companies such as Volkswagen and Schaeffler.
Germany released its unemployment report for November on Friday. The number of unemployed people in November 2024 touched 2.86 million, according to the Federal Employment Agency, also known as Bundesagentur für Arbeit. This was a rise of 7,000 from October, in seasonally-adjusted terms.
The figure was a smaller than expected increase, with analysts polled by Reuters estimating that there would be a surge of about 20,000. In contrast, the number of unemployed people jumped by 27,000 in October.
November’s unemployment report shows that the German labour market is still quite resilient, despite several large companies such as Volkswagen and Schaeffler announcing a slew of job reductions in the last few months. This has already dealt a significant blow to Germany’s industrial sector.
The unemployment rate came up to 5.9% in November 2024, with the number of unemployed people falling by 17,000 compared to October. Compared to November 2023, however, there was an increase of 168,000 people.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.1 in November 2024, which was the same as October, as well as being the highest since February 2021.
The number of people who were unemployed in November 2024 came up to 3,554,394 which was 4000 less than October. However, it was 109,000 more compared to November 2023. This figure was also 2,000 more than October, on a seasonally-adjusted basis.
In November, there were 668,000 job openings, which was a fall of 65,000 from the same month last year, as hiring activity continues to lag.
German retail sales drop in October
The German month-on-month retail sales report for October was also released on Friday, coming in at -1.5%, a significant fall from September’s 1.6%, according to the Federal Statistical Office. This was also considerably below market expectations of 0.3%.
This decrease was mainly because of internet and mail order sales falling 2.4%, while non-food sales dropped 2.2%. On the other hand, food sales inched up 0.1%.
Year-on-year retail sales also missed forecasts by a wide margin, coming in at 1% in October, compared to 4.2% in September and analyst expectations of 3.2%.
The rising cost of living in Germany and its slowing economy have both contributed to slowing retail sales, as consumers are unwilling to spend on big-ticket items. Wider geopolitical uncertainty, especially concerning US tariffs, have also hit economic expectations for the coming year. This is because Germany relies heavily on exports, which may be hit significantly, in case of a tariff or trade war between the EU and the US.
