Federal Statistical Office said, with the usual autumn revival, unemployment fell by 85,000 to 2,234,000 from August to September and the unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percentage points to 4.9 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal influences, a minus of 10,000 unemployed persons is calculated for September compared with the previous month. Economists had expected a 5 000 increase. This decline is solely due to the development of basic security. In the economy-oriented unemployment insurance, there were once again seasonally-adjusted increases. Compared with the previous year, a total of 22,000 people were less unemployed and the unemployment rate has decreased by 0.1 percentage points. The unemployment rate determined by the Federal Statistical Office according to the ILO acquisition concept was 3.2 percent in July.

Underemployment, which also takes into account changes in labour market policy and short-term incapacity for work, has also fallen slightly by 4,000 in seasonally adjusted terms compared with the previous month. Overall, the underemployment in September 2019 amounted to 3,152,000 persons. That was 19,000 less than a year ago.

"The economic downturn is also reflected in the labour market in September. All in all, however, the labour market remains in a robust state. Unemployment and underemployment declined in September. Employment growth is continuing, but is losing momentum, and companies ' demand for new employees has repeatedly declined at a high level."said the chairman of the board of the federal employment agency (BA), Detlef Scheele, today at the monthly press conference in Nuremberg.