Germany’s labour market boom continued in the third quarter with the number of people in employment reaching 45.04 million, the first time that quarterly figures have exceeded the 45 million mark since reunification in 1990, according to data from the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis).

Compared to the third quarter of 2017, the number of people in employment in Germany grew by 556,000 or 1.3% as a result of the onset of the recovery in the autumn. When compared to the second quarter of 2018, the number of employed people increased by 259,000 (0.6%).

Destatis added that an increase in employment is common in the third quarter of the year.

Meanwhile, Destatis also found that the number of self-employed decreased while the number of employed increased. The number of employees increased by 623,000 (+ 1.6%) to 40.8 million in the third quarter of 2018 compared to the same period last year. The number of self-employed, decreased by 67,000 (-1.6%) to 4.2 million compared to the same period of the previous year.