In December 2025, about 45.9 million residents of Germany (in‑land concept) were employed. The provisional figure from Destatis shows that, after seasonal adjustment, employment was 5 000 persons – effectively unchanged (‑0.0 %) compared with November 2025. Between May and November 2025 the monthly decline averaged 11 000 people.
When seasonal effects are removed, December 2025 employment fell 126 000 people (‑0.3 %) from November 2025, a larger drop than the average December decline for 2022‑24 (‑109 000 people). Year‑over‑year, employment in December 2025 was 69 000 people lower (‑0.2 %) than in December 2024. The October and November 2025 months showed a YoY decline of -0.1 %, indicating the downward trend observed since August 2025 has continued.
For the fourth quarter of 2025, the provisional average number of employed residents was roughly 46.1 million. Compared with the third quarter, seasonally adjusted employment decreased by 25 000 people (‑0.1 %). Full detailed 2025‑Q4 data will be released on 18 February 2026.
Unemployment in December 2025 was 1.60 million people, 184 000 higher (13.0 %) than in December 2024. The unemployment rate rose to 3.6 %, 0.4 percentage points above the 3.2 % recorded in December 2024. After removing seasonal and irregular effects, December unemployment was 1.68 million, 7 000 more (0.4 %) than November, while the adjusted unemployment rate remained steady at 3.8 %.
