BERLIN, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Germany's employment rate grew by 0.1 percent in the second quarter (Q2) of this year compared to Q1, with around 46.1 million people being employed or self-employed in the country, according to data released Friday by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).
The year-on-year comparison showed a 0.4 percent increase in employment in Q2, according to preliminary calculations by Destatis.
However, these figures fell short of the European Union (EU) average. The data from the Eurostat, the EU statistics office, showed that employment in the 27 EU member states rose by an average of 0.7 percent in Q2, while the euro area saw an increase of 0.8 percent year-on-year.
In Q2, job creation in Germany was driven primarily by the service sectors, which added 229,000 new positions.
The manufacturing sector, however, continued to struggle. Excluding construction, the number of people employed in this sector declined by 44,000 in Q2, or 0.5 percent year-on-year.
The trend of declining employment was also evident among self-employed people, including assisting family members. The number of self-employed people dropped by 29,000, bringing the total to 3.8 million.
In comparison, the number of employees in the country rose to 42.3 million in Q2, an increase of 196,000 compared to the same period last year. On average, those employed worked 318.2 hours during Q2, marking a slight increase of 0.4 percent in working hours.
In June, the number of unemployed people in Germany reached 1.52 million, representing an increase of 194,000 people, or 14.6 percent, compared to the same period last year. As a result, the unemployment rate climbed to 3.4 percent, up from 3 percent last June.
