Employment in Germany down, working hours up

BERLIN

The number of employed people in the country has decreased, while the working hours of part-time employees have increased, a report by the German Institute for Employment Research (IAB) showed on Tuesday.

The report highlighted a notable shift in the country’s employment structure, revealing that losses in full-time employment were offset by an increase in part-time working hours.

The institute’s report stated that the number of employed individuals in the first quarter of 2026 decreased by 160,000 compared to the same period last year, dropping to 45.64 million.

During the same period, the average weekly working hours per person increased by 0.3% to 344.2 hours, which kept the total volume of work nearly stable at 15.7 billion hours despite a slight decline.

The report noted that the proportion of part-time workers increased by 0.4 percentage points compared to the same quarter of the previous year, reaching 40.1%, and that this marked the first time in history that the 40% threshold was crossed on a first-quarter basis.

While the report stated that the weekly work hours for full-time employees remained nearly unchanged at 38.15 hours, it also noted that the weekly work hours for part-time employees increased by 0.3 hours to 18.88 hours.

The report also noted that the decline in sick leave played a role in maintaining the labor force, recording that the rate of absenteeism due to illness fell from 6.5% last year to 6.1% in the first quarter of 2026.