Almost 2.5 million people without a job

Nationwide, almost 2.5 million people are currently unemployed. This was announced by the Federal Employment Agency. The authority attributed the renewed increase in the unemployment rate to the fact that since last month refugees from Ukraine without employment have also been included in the balance sheet.

With its information, the Federal Employment Agency relies on data that was available up to and including July 12. Accordingly, the number of unemployed rose by 107,000 to 2.47 million people without a job compared to June. The unemployment rate is currently 5.4 percent, 0.2 percentage points more than around four weeks ago.

Compared to the same month last year, however, the authority recorded a decrease in the number of unemployed by 120,000.

Higher unemployment than usual for the time of year

"Unemployment and underemployment increased more sharply in July than is usual for the season," said Daniel Terzenbach, board member of the Federal Employment Agency, assessing the current situation on the labor market. A main reason for the development is that refugees from Ukraine, who were initially classified as asylum seekers, are now entitled to basic security and are therefore also included in the unemployment statistics. However, "despite all the burdens and uncertainties", the job market remains stable overall, Terzenbach continued.

Last month, the Federal Employment Agency also included Ukraine refugees in its statistics for the first time – and had already partially attributed the increase in unemployment figures to this in June. Last month, the number of people without a job rose by 103,000 to around 2.36 million compared to May. In June of last year, around 251,000 more people were unemployed nationwide.

More vacancies than last year

According to the Federal Employment Agency, the number of employees on short-time work continues to decrease. The underlying data is available up to May – at that time around 328,000 employees were on short-time work nationwide. In April, 401,000 people were still being paid short-time work benefits.

At the same time, the federal authority reports that there are significantly more vacancies on the job market than in the previous year. There are currently around 881,000 vacancies throughout Germany – and thus around 136,000 more vacancies than a year ago.