Job vacancies in the 4th quarter 2008: Decreasing in industry - increasing in the social services

Abstract

"First effects of the global crisis reached the German labour market in 4th quarter 2008: compared to the fourth quarter of 2007, the number of job vacancies had decreased by about 130,000 to 1.1 million. While the manufacturing of metal products and machinery showed a decrease in vacancies of almost 50 percent, vacancies increased by more than 30 percent in the social services. In 2008, around 14 percent of all firms and administrations needed to abandon their search for new employees because of a lack of appropriate candidates. This applied especially to small firms with less than 10 employees. The latest results of the German Job Vacancy Survey for the first quarter of 2009 show an ongoing decline in the number of job vacancies to 870,000, around 20 percent less than in the previous quarter. This decline was found almost exclusively in Western Germany; the Eastern German labour market was barely affected." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Heckmann, M., Kettner, A. & Rebien, M. (2009): Offene Stellen im IV. Quartal 2008: Einbruch in der Industrie - Soziale Berufe legen zu. (IAB-Kurzbericht 11/2009), Nürnberg, 8 p.