The labour market recovery from the COVID‑19 recession has been strong, but lost momentum in 2022 and early 2023 in the context of the economic slowdown. However, employment and unemployment have held their ground, and job vacancy rates remain high in most countries, despite some signs of easing. By May 2023, the OECD unemployment rate had fallen to 4.8%, a level not seen in decades.
In Germany, the unemployment rate stood at 2.9% in May 2023 (see Figure 1). This is one of the lowest values across all OECD countries, and below Germany’s pre‑crisis rate of 3.1% (in December 2019) and the crisis peak of 3.9% (reached in late 2020 / early 2021). Estimated employment stood at a record high of 77.3% among 15‑64 year‑olds in Q1 2023 – 1.5 percentage points above its value in the last pre‑crisis quarter Q4 2019.
The economic outlook is more muted. According to OECD projections, the German economy will stagnate in 2023 as high inflation reduces real incomes and savings and holds back consumption. This compares to a projected 1.4% growth in GDP OECD-wide. The outlook for 2024 is more positive, with a forecast GDP growth of 1.3% in Germany. Unemployment in Germany is projected to continue declining to 2.8% in 2024.