At the end of 2024, just under 6.2 million people were employed in Germany’s health sector, an increase of 102 000 workers or 1.7 percent compared to the previous year. According to Destatis, this marks the first time since the height of the COVID‑19 pandemic in 2021 that the health‑care workforce has grown by more than one percent each year (2021: +2.8 percent, 2022: +0.5 percent, 2023: +0.4 percent).
The number of full‑time equivalent employees reached over 4.4 million, a rise of 1.4 percent on the previous year (2021: +1.9 percent, 2022: +0.4 percent, 2023: +0.5 percent).
In 2024 the greatest gains were seen in (semi‑)inpatient settings, where employment rose by 64 000 people (3.0 percent) versus 32 000 people (1.3 percent) in the outpatient sector. Within all inpatient facilities, employment increased: hospitals added 38 000 workers (2.9 percent), preventive or rehabilitation centres added 5 000 (4.2 percent), and (semi‑)inpatient nursing homes added 21 000 (2.8 percent).
The outpatient sector showed mixed developments. Outpatient nursing care added 11 000 staff (2.6 percent); practices in other medical professions such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy added 14 000 (2.4 percent); general‑practice and dental‑practice employment each grew by 4 000, a 0.5 percent and 1.0 percent increase respectively. In contrast, pharmacies (totaling 237 000 employees) and retail shops selling optical, medical, and orthopaedic goods (136 000 employees) saw no change.
Care‑giving staff across hospitals, preventive and rehabilitation facilities, outpatient settings, and (semi‑)inpatient nursing homes rose by 49 000 people, a 3.4 percent increase over 2023. Care assistants grew by 5.2 percent, outpacing the 2.6 percent increase for qualified nurses. In absolute terms, care assistants climbed by 24 000 to a total of 485 000, while qualified nurses added 25 000 to reach roughly one million. This continues a decade‑long trend of higher growth rates for care assistants than for qualified nurses.
