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Fewer unemployed in November, but more short-term job advertisements: This is how the Federal Employment Agency sums up last month’s labor market data. According to this, 2,699 million people were unemployed in November, 61,000 less than in October. However, compared to the same month last year, there were 519,000 more. The unemployment rate fell compared to October by 0.1 percentage point to 5.9 percent.
“The labor market reacted to the restrictions in November, fortunately not with an increase in layoffs at this time,” said Federal Agency executive director Detlef Scheele. However, companies are again more reluctant to seek staff and have again indicated part-time work for more employees.
Data collected up to November 11 only
However, the effects of the partial shutdown can only be partially seen in the unemployment figures for November. The deadline for the survey was November 11; it had only been nine days since the restrictions began.
Economics professor Enzo Weber from the Employment Research Institute (IAB) in Nuremberg expects the labor market to perform robustly anyway, as the effects are not as severe as in spring. Aid to companies also contributes to this.
However, the second corona wave will weigh on the recovery of the labor market. »Employment and unemployment are still far from pre-crisis levels. The number of short-term workers is likely to increase again significantly in the areas affected by the closure. “
Over half a million short-term job postings
Short-time ads increased significantly in November compared to the previous month due to new restrictions and store closures. According to the Federal Agency, companies reported short-time work for 537,000 people between November 1 and 25, a good third of them from the hotel industry. Experience shows that the number of people doing part-time work is lower. Companies often record part-time work as a precautionary measure.
The latest figures for short-time workers are from September: according to preliminary data extrapolated from the Federal Agency, they fell to 2.22 million people in that month. More recent data is not yet available. At the height of the first corona wave in April, the number was just under six million people, and since then it has been steadily declining.
Short-term labor costs increased to more than 20 billion
The costs of short-time work as a result of the corona pandemic have passed the 20 billion euro mark. More than half of this was due to payments to employees who had to accept reduced wages due to the mandatory break, a spokesman for the Federal Employment Agency (BA) told the Reuters news agency.
Around € 8.7 billion were paid to employers as reimbursement of social contributions. Last year, for economic reasons, spending on short-time hours amounted to 131 million euros at the end of November.
