"No sign of economic slowdown on the labour market"
Federal Labour Minister von der Leyen comments on the labour market figures for January 2012.
© R. Deischl
Ursula von der Leyen:
January is - and remains - traditionally the month when companies refrain from recruiting new employees. At the start of the year, there is the added impact of the end of the Christmas trade and weather-related redundancies. Due to seasonal reasons, unemployment in January therefore rose to 3,081,000. In seasonally adjusted terms, unemployment has fallen by a further 34,000. Year-on-year, the number of people out of work in January was down by 264,000, corresponding to a decrease of 8 percent. A look at the trend in gainful employment and socially insured jobs shows that there were 1.3 million more people in work at the end of last year compared to 12 months previously. At the same time, 919,000 advertised posts remained unfilled. The sharp upturn following the crisis is clearly leaving its mark. Companies are having difficulties finding the right candidates to fill vacancies and this is where the challenge lies. Making a forecast for 2012 is difficult. Economic indicators are giving different signals and much of what happens will be conditional upon the debt crisis. Based on the data currently available, it is likely that the German economy will have either stopped growing in the final quarter of 2011, or will have even contracted slightly. At the same time, however, the expectations for the economy as a whole point to a possible stabilisation as the year progresses. There is no evidence of a slowdown on the labour market.