Employment in Germany rose by 1.5% in the second quarter compared to the same quarter last year according to figures from the Institute for Labour Market and Professional Research (IAB).

The figures also showed that Germany’s labour force worked a total of 14.2 billion hours in the second quarter, which was 0.4% less than the same period last year. This was due to the lower number of potential working days compared to the previous year.

According to IAB, the number of part-time employees rose by 2.2% and the number of full-time employees by 1.5% compared to the previous year. "

Meanwhile, the average working time per employee in the second quarter of 2017 was 321.2 hours and fell by 1.9% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. The sickness rate for employees fell by 0.4% and stood at 3.8%.

The IAB added that the average working time in part-time jobs today is almost 100 hours per year higher than in 2004. The reason for the increase is that there are more part-time jobs available now while the number of employees has slightly decreased since then.