Unemployment Rate in Germany remained unchanged at 6.30 percent in June. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - Germany Unemployment Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

In May 2025, the German unemployment rate was 6.2 percent. The rate of unemployment was fairly stable throughout the timeframe under review.

Germany - Unemployment rate was 3.60% in March of 2025, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Germany - Unemployment rate - last updated from the EUROSTAT on July of 2025. Historically, Germany - Unemployment rate reached a record high of 7.50% in September of 2009 and a record low of 2.90% in September of 2019.

The average unemployment rate was six percent in Germany in 2024. Since 2005, the rate of unemployment has generally been declining, though a slight increase was evident in recent years. Unemployment in Germany and comparison with other countries Germany has a comparatively low unemployment rate compared to its European neighbors, and they are expected to stay at around three percent over the next few years. This is a result of the damage the economy suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the lockdown, most businesses were closed, and many companies lost revenue meaning employees were let go. It is also possible that higher unemployment figures will continue into later years because of inflation and rising energy prices. There is also a slightly higher unemployment rate among men than there is among women. Social support Social support is money paid out to those who are unable to work for some reason, its purpose is to protect those who are most vulnerable. The status of being unemployed is defined as when an employed person is laid off, fired, or quits his work and is still looking for a job, this is what qualifies someone to receive a citizens allowance (Bürgergeld) in Germany. The payments are only made if you are unemployed and worked for the last 12 months. Otherwise, benefits are received in the form of Arbeitslosengeld II, also called Hartz IV, which distributes social payments to people without an income who cannot work to make a living. Since January 2023 though, Arbeitlosengeld has been replaced by Bürgergeld, since this is a new transition, it is still possible that people will still refer to the benefits as Arbeitlosengeld or Hartz IV.

Key information about Germany Unemployment Rate

• Germany Unemployment Rate remained the same at 3.50% in Jan 2025, from the previously reported figure of 3.50% in Dec 2024.
• Germany Unemployment Rate is updated monthly, available from Jan 1991 to Jan 2025, with an average rate of 7.00%.
• The data reached an all-time high of 11.20% in Aug 2005 and a record low of 2.90% in May 2023.
• The data is reported by reported by Statistisches Bundesamt.
• In the latest reports, Germany Population reached 84.68 million people in Dec 2023.

Germany - Unemployment rates of the population aged 25-64: Tertiary education (levels 5-8) was 2.60% in December of 2024, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Germany - Unemployment rates of the population aged 25-64: Tertiary education (levels 5-8) - last updated from the EUROSTAT on July of 2025. Historically, Germany - Unemployment rates of the population aged 25-64: Tertiary education (levels 5-8) reached a record high of 3.40% in December of 2009 and a record low of 1.80% in December of 2019.

Germany - Total unemployment rate was 2.40% in December of 2024, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Germany - Total unemployment rate - last updated from the EUROSTAT on July of 2025. Historically, Germany - Total unemployment rate reached a record high of 4.70% in December of 2009 and a record low of 2.00% in December of 2019.

Germany - Unemployment rate: Males was 3.60% in December of 2024, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Germany - Unemployment rate: Males - last updated from the EUROSTAT on July of 2025. Historically, Germany - Unemployment rate: Males reached a record high of 7.70% in December of 2009 and a record low of 3.30% in December of 2023.

Germany - Unemployment rate: Females was 3.10% in December of 2024, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Germany - Unemployment rate: Females - last updated from the EUROSTAT on July of 2025. Historically, Germany - Unemployment rate: Females reached a record high of 6.90% in December of 2009 and a record low of 2.60% in December of 2019.

At a rate of 11.27 percent in the second quarter of 2024, Spain was one of the countries with the highest unemployment rates in the European Union. As of the third quarter of 2005, the unemployment rate in Spain was at roughly 8.4 percent, the lowest recorded in the period under consideration. However, a few years later, by the third quarter of 2009, it had more than doubled. It was not until 2016 that Spain witnessed a downward trend in its unemployment rate. Unemployment in Spain The age group with the highest distribution of unemployment is that of teenagers (16 to 19 years). Recent quarterly unemployment figures in Spain show that unemployment peaked in the first quarter of 2013, whereby there were approximately 6.28 million inhabitants unemployed, by the same quarter in 2024, unemployment had decreased by over 3 million. This trend is also reflected in the number of people in employment in Spain. The situation in the European Union Spain was the European country with the highest unemployment rate in August 2023, with nearly 12 percent of the labor force out of work. This figure is considerably higher than that of the rest of the European Union, which had an average unemployment rate of six percent as of the same period. In terms of youth unemployment, figures in the European Union reached 14 percent in August 2023, although the numbers varies greatly across the countries. While Greece and Spain topped the list at a youth unemployment rate of 23.5 and 26.8 percent, Germany was at the bottom of the list with just 5.7 percent of its youth out of a job.

Germany - Youth unemployment rate (15-24) was 3.60% in December of 2024, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Germany - Youth unemployment rate (15-24) - last updated from the EUROSTAT on July of 2025. Historically, Germany - Youth unemployment rate (15-24) reached a record high of 5.80% in December of 2009 and a record low of 3.00% in December of 2019.

Unemployment, total (% of total labor force) (modeled ILO estimate) in Germany was reported at 3.406 % in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Germany - Unemployment, total - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

The German Internet Panel (GIP) is an infrastructure project. The GIP serves to collect data about individual attitudes and preferences which are relevant for political and economic decision-making processes.
The questionnaire contains numerous experimental variations in the survey instruments. For more information, see the study documentation.

Topics: Vignette experiment on the fair decision on the granting of bank loans or financial products to private individuals and acceptance of the type of decision; Vignette experiment on the fair decision on the early release of prisoners and acceptance of the type of decision; Vignette experiment on the fair decision on the hiring of new employees or the dismissal of employees in the probationary period and acceptance of the type of decision; Vignette experiment on the fair decision of the reduction of unemployment benefits or the awarding of support measures of job seekers and acceptance of the type of decision; ownership of smartphone, mobile phone, desktop computer/PC or laptop, tablet, eBook reader or none of the above; account with user name and password at selected providers (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Xing, at none of these providers); awareness of the following terms: Artificial intelligence, computer algorithms, machine learning, recommendation services, targeted/personalised advertising, none of these terms; knowledge of the purposes for which artificial intelligence technologies are used (advertising on social networks, curation of news on social networks, recommendations in online shops, recommendations on video streaming sites, ranking of results in search engines, responses from intelligent assistants, suggestions about potential partners on dating platforms, content of Wikipedia articles, website of a local restaurant, for other purposes, none of these purposes); concern about privacy in general; agreement with various statements about sharing data (I don´t mind sharing personal information because everyone does it nowadays, You can´t live in our modern world without sharing personal information, If you share personal information, you don´t know who sees it all, I don´t mind sharing my personal information if it gets me products and services I´d like); feeling sufficient control over personal information; type of internet activities in the last 3 months (e.g. searched for address, searched for information about products and services, etc.); trust in institutions (banks, private companies, judiciary, employment agencies); conjoint experiment to decide between two hypothetical parties with different attributes on the ideological position of each party and the parties´ positions on the issues of free market economy (trade between Germany and EU countries), trade barriers (trade between the EU and non-EU countries), freedom of movement (access of workers from EU countries to Germany) and immigration (access of workers from non-EU countries to the EU); experiment on the position of concrete parties on the topics of free market economy, trade barriers, freedom of movement, immigration and European unification; participation in the election to the European Parliament; actual or hypothetical voting decision in the hypothetical voting decision in the election to the European Parliament; opinion on European unification; experiment on trust in the results of four different surveys on the topic of European unification; interest in the topic of European unification; clear opinion on whether the process of European unification should be further advanced or not.

Occupational situation: employment status or (professional) activities; professional status of paid activity (employed, self-employed or helping family member); short-time work or leave with/without continued payment of wages of employed persons; amount of work short-time work of employed persons; amount of work in self-employed activity (more, about the same or less than before the start of the Corona pandemic, not working at all in my self-employed activity at the moment); Place of work of main activity (exclusively on site with employer or client, mainly on site with employer, occasionally in home office, about equally on site with employer and in home office, mainly in home office, occasionally with employer or client, exclusively in home office); probability of own unemployment in the next 12 months.

Impact of measures to contain the Corona pandemic in Germany (economic damage greater than societal benefit vs. societal benefit greater than economic damage); respondent´s monthly net income (grouped); household net income (grouped); satisfaction with selected areas of life (work and family life).

Demography: sex; age (year of birth, categorised); highest educational degree; highest professional qualification; marital status; household size; employment status; German citizenship; frequency of private internet usage; federal state.

Additionally coded were: Respondent ID; household ID,...

The study on social security and fairness was conducted by the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research on behalf of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government. During the survey period from July 5 to July 19, 2024, the German population aged 16 and over was surveyed in personal interviews on the following topics: distributive justice in Germany, perception of reforms to the welfare state and need for reform of the social security system, citizen´s income, economic situation and old-age provision. The respondents were selected using a quota sample. The findings are supplemented by the results of eight qualitative group discussions with a total of 48 participants from different social classes from all over Germany, which Ipsos conducted online from June 3 to 6, 2024. Only the results report is available for this qualitative study; no data was archived.
Assessment of distributive justice with regard to economic conditions in Germany; development of social justice in the last ten years; reasons for this assessment; assessment of distributive justice with regard to own participation compared to others; social justice most likely through stronger vs. less strong state intervention; importance of different areas of social justice (intergenerational justice, performance justice, opportunity justice, family justice, distributive justice and needs justice); realization of these areas of social justice; Split A: Perception of justice with regard to: similarly high retirement provision for all regardless of occupation vs. strong differences depending on the individual´s pension provision, tax advantages for parents compared to childless people vs. no advantages for parents, earnings according to performance vs. no major differences in income (end of split A); split B: perception of justice in relation to earlier retirement for people in physically demanding occupations vs. the same retirement age for all, unconditional basic income for all vs. state support only for the unemployed, as much state support for immigrants as for Germans in need vs. greater support for Germans in need (end of split B).

Welfare state: opinion on the need to reform the social security system in Germany; demand for an expansion of social security; particularly important tasks of the welfare state (e.g. securing pensions, ensuring adequate healthcare, combating the misuse of social benefits, etc.); trust in the social security systems (protection in the event of illness, protection in the event of unemployment and statutory pension); social groups that receive too little support in the welfare system (e.g. people in need of care, low earners, pensioners, single parents, sick people, children from low-income families, etc.) or groups that are overprovided for; assessment of personal benefits from the welfare state; preference for higher taxes and more comprehensive protection vs. less taxes and less protection; policy ensures more equality between the poorer and richer vs. policy increases social differences; perception of various reforms of the welfare state that have already been adopted or are still planned (e.g. introduction of the citizen´s income/abolition of Hartz IV, increase in unemployment benefit, etc.); reforms of the federal government in the area of the welfare state lead to more social justice vs. less social justice; reasons for this assessment; measures that contribute to more social justice in Germany and measures that tend to lead to less justice.

Citizen´s income: knowledge of detailed regulations on citizen´s income (e.g. amount, assumption of rent and heating costs, obligations of unemployed persons to cooperate, top-up option, sanctions for breaches of obligations, etc.); assessment of citizen´s income; assessment of these regulations as appropriate; assessment of the gap between citizen´s income and low income as appropriate or large or small; suitable measures to increase the gap between earned income and support income again (reduce Citizen´s Income, increase minimum wage, reduce income tax, other); effects of the current level of Citizen´s Income on the motivation of Citizen´s Income recipients to work; current level of Citizen´s Income leads to many Citizen´s Income recipients not going to work although they could work; abusive claiming of Citizen´s Income by many people vs.is the exception rather than the rule; opinion on the special regulation for Ukrainian refugees (regulation is fine, all refugees should receive citizen´s allowance, Ukrainians should receive less); respondent receives citizen´s allowance him/herself or knows other recipients of citizen´s allowance.

Economic situation and old-age provision: assessment of own economic situation at present and in comparison to five years ago; assessment of the risk of social decline; assessment of personal financial situation in old age; respondent lives entirely or predominantly on an old-age pension or retirement pension; income...

Persons between 16 and 75 years, living in private households

In January 2021, approximately **** million jobs in Europe's three largest economies were being supported by temporary employment schemes, with the UK's job retention scheme supporting approximately **** million jobs, France's Chômage partiel scheme *** million, while *** million workers were on Germany's Kurzarbeit system. Although some of these partial employment mechanisms were already in place before the COVID-19 pandemic, their usage accelerated considerably after the first Coronavirus lockdowns in Spring 2020. How much will this cost European governments? Early on in the pandemic, European governments moved swiftly to limit the damage that the Coronavirus pandemic would cause to the labor market. The spectre of mass unemployment, which would put a huge strain on European benefit systems anyway, was enough to encourage significant government spending and intervention. To this end, the European Union made 100 billion Euros of loans available through it's unemployment support fund (SURE). As of March 2021, Italy had received ***** billion Euros in loans from the SURE mechanism, and is set to be loaned **** billion Euros overall. Spain and Poland will receive the second and third highest amount from the plan, at **** billion, and ***** billion Euros respectively. What about the UK? The United Kingdom is not involved in the European Union's SURE scheme, but has also paid substantial amounts of money to keep unemployment at bay. As of January 31, 2021, there had been more than **** million jobs furloughed on the UK's job retention scheme. By this date, the expenditure of this measure had reached **** billion British pounds, with this figure expected to increase further, following the extension of the scheme to September 2021.

Unemployment with advanced education (% of total labor force with advanced education) in Germany was reported at 2.149 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Germany - Unemployment with advanced education (% of total unemployment) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

Attitudes to the current political situation in the GDR, future expectations and stand on German-German unification. Topics: Evaluation of personal prospects for the future; stand on remaining in Eastern Germany; reasons against remaining in Eastern Germany (scale); goals in life (scale); expectations of immediate development on the territory of the GDR regarding economic upturn, social security, new jobs, just pay, mass unemployment, equal rights of Germans, willingness to make sacrifices by the citizens of the FRG, wage increase; evaluation of personal prospects for the future in various areas of life (scale); change in the cost of living since currency union; comparison of income and cost of living; evaluation of statements on willingness to work in a different occupation, expenditure of German Marks just for products from the West, demonstrations against the economic policy of the government, strikes for higher wages, wage demands only depending on higher work productivity; attitude to regulation of the right to asylum in the GDR for politically persecuted or economic refugees; personal interest in politics; evaluation of the demand for unity of Germany within the borders of 1937; stand on actions against foreigners; stand on German-German unification and the speed of the unification process; predicted time required until achievement of equivalent living conditions in East and West; participation and party preference in the election for the East German Parliament on 18 Mar. 1990; intended participation and party preference in the election of the state government and the all-German Federal Parliament election; preferred governing party; trust in politicians from East and West (scale); trust in various parties (scale); membership in parties and movements; religiousness; full-time or part-time employment; current job security and prospect of a new job; feeling of being threatened in view of increase in cost of living, crime, aggressiveness and violence, right-wing and left-wing radicalism, drug abuse, increasing egoism, personal unemployment; self-assessment of psychological condition (scale); satisfaction with economic, political and social situations such as housing conditions, standard of living, income, pension, earnings-related unemployment benefit, life all in all; personal identity; evaluation of experiences with the market economy; Supplemental form: possession and intended purchase of a car; age and brand of desired car; maximum expenditure for a car and planned borrowing.

The German social benefit system, which is shown in different overviews in this data compilation, has a long history. It was constructed mainly in the last 130 years but his has some substantially older roots. The present data tables give an overview over the historical perspective of the current social benefit system. Based on the suggestions of Bismarck, the emperor Wilhelm I. announced the social security legislation on November 17th of 1881. One of the main reasons for the development of social security institutions in the 80s of the 19th century was increasing importance of the working class movement in addition to the growing awareness of the need to improve the social status of workers. The social security legislation was introduced due to the convictions that “for healing the social damages is not enough to repress the socio-democratic movement, it is also necessary positively promote the welfare of the workers.” In its following sessions the Reichstag adopted the three pillars of social security: 1. the law concerning the health insurance of workers from June 15th of 1883, 2. the law on accident insurance from July 6th of 1884; and 3. the law concerning the invalidity and old age security from July 22 of 1889. In the Weimar Republic labor market policies were newly developed. In 1927 the tasks of occupational counselling, employment services and unemployment insurance were summarized trough the law of employment services and unemployment insurance and delegated to the responsibility of the Reich´s institute of employment („Reichsanstalt für Arbeit“)With the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany, the political goal of a welfare state was revived and cultivated. In 1952 the self-administration of insurance providers was reintroduced. Besides the former social security system, which includes the protection against risks of accidents, sickness, old-age and unemployment, in the Federal Republic of Germany, the system of social security was expanded: Social-compensation schemes (war victims, load balancing), minimum social security (social assistance, basic security in old age and disability), long-term care and other social transfers (in the context of housing policy, the policy educational grants, family policy, youth and elderly care, the promotion of wealth creation). The legal basis of the minimum benefit until the reporting period until 2004 is the federal law on public welfare from 1961, the law on a need orientated basis security in old ages and in case of the reduction of income from 2003 (both laws were transferred in the 12th volume of the Social Security Code), the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act from 1993 and the "basic support for job seekers" which became law in 2005. Central variables of the statistics on social security, as well as on supplementary systems of social security, are the number of insured persons or beneficiaries (by sex, age, nationality, etc.), the financial status of the insurance providers (especially the statistics on income and expenditure), where concerning the expenditures a distinct differentiation by benefits will be undertaken. Other important statistical values are the contribution rates of the different schemes of social security and the employee distributions of social security. The Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs generates a social budget on a regular basis, which represents the social benefits divided by institutions, functions and types as well as the financing of the social benefits. The total amount of social benefits is then expressed in relation to the (nominal) gross domestic product through the so called social expenditure ratio. This key ratio is a rough indicator on the inclusion of social benefits in the entire economic system. Data tables in HISTAT:The following overview contains the structure of the data tables:A. Overviews, published by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social A.01 Basic data on social security in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)A.02 Health insurance in the FRD A.03 Pension insurance in the FRD A.04 Accident insurance in the FRD A.05 Promotion of employment / unemployment benefits (I and II) in the FRGA.06 War victim benefits in the FRG A.07 Asylum seekers benefits in the FRG A.08 Child benefits in the FRG A.09 Social assistance in the FRG A.10 Nursing care insurance in the FRG B. Social security in Germany from 1960 on B.01 Pension insuranceB.02 Health insurance B.03 Overviews on the social budget (Date in 10 – year intervals)B.04 Social nursing care insurance B.05 Basic parameters concerning the unemployment insuranceB.06 Assessment ceiling and contribution rates for different schemes of social securityB.07 Social assistanceC. Development of the German social security systems until 1938 C.01 Statutory health insurance (1885-1938)C.02 Statutory accident insurance (1885-1938)C.03 Statutory pension insurance for workers (1891-1938)C.04 Statutory pension insurance for clerical employees (1913-1938)C.05 Pen...

Germany - Harmonised unemployment rate was 3.70% in May of 2025, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Germany - Harmonised unemployment rate - last updated from the EUROSTAT on July of 2025. Historically, Germany - Harmonised unemployment rate reached a record high of 3.70% in May of 2025 and a record low of 2.90% in May of 2023.