Employment Report in Germany

Covers the German labour market, in particular the unemployment rate: the share of people without a job and actively seeking work as a proportion of the labour force.

The Federal Employment Agency publishes registered unemployment from its job centres, while the Federal Statistical Office publishes the ILO-harmonized rate from a survey. Released as levels, monthly change and rate, both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted.

A thermometer of the economy's health and of consumption. Rising unemployment or weak job creation points to a slowdown and reinforces expectations of easier monetary policy; it moves the euro.

The registered and harmonized measures can differ. Being partly survey-based, it carries sampling variability and struggles to capture underemployment and informal work; the seasonally adjusted series is the one to watch.