The number of persons in employment in Germany continued to increase in the first quarter, albeit at a slower pace, preliminary figures from Destatis showed Tuesday.
Total number of employed persons in the country rose 0.7 percent, or by 275,000 persons to 42.4 million in the first quarter from the corresponding period last year. In the fourth quarter, the increase was 0.9 percent.
In the first quarter, the climb in the total number of employed persons was largely influenced by the growth in the service sector. Within the service sector, business services recorded an increase of 2.0 percent. Compared with the fourth quarter last year, the number of employment in the first quarter declined 1.3 percent, or by 579,000 persons.
Even though a quarter-on-quarter decline in employment in the first quarter of any year is usual, mainly because of the weather, the decrease in the first quarter of 2015 was the largest since 2010, the statistical office said.
The average number of hours worked per person in employment fell 0.2 percent to 351.7 hours in the first quarter compared with the same period of the previous year.
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