The drop in unemployment is weaker than usual for the time of year. And the regional differences in the most populous federal state are still considerable.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – The number of unemployed in North Rhine-Westphalia fell again slightly in November despite the threat of recession. Overall, the NRW regional office of the Federal Employment Agency registered a good 675,000 job seekers – 0.6 percent fewer than in the previous month, as announced in Düsseldorf on Wednesday. The unemployment rate in the most populous federal state fell from 7.0 to 6.9 percent.
“The labor market in NRW continued to be stable in November,” said the head of the regional directorate, Torsten Withake. “Unemployment has fallen as expected, albeit a little less than is usual for the time of year.”
Two factors in particular influenced the development of the labor market in November, Withake said. On the one hand, Ukrainian refugees continued to report to the job centers – albeit to a much smaller extent than in the summer. On the other hand, the effects of the global economic uncertainties on the labor market were noticeable. Employers are now a little more cautious than they used to be and are no longer filling every vacancy immediately, Withake said.
Unemployment fell the most among younger people under the age of 25. Here the unemployment rate on the reference date, November 14, was only 5.2 percent. Withake emphasized that the decline in the number of long-term unemployed was also positive. In November, the employment agency still registered around 288,000 job seekers who had been unemployed for more than a year. That was almost 33,000 fewer than in the previous year and a good 2,000 fewer than in the previous month.
The regional differences in the labor market in NRW were still considerable. The unemployment rate in November was highest in the Ruhr area at 9.6 percent. In the Bergisches Land and in the Rhineland it was 6.7 percent, in Ostwestfalen-Lippe 5.3 and in South Westphalia 5.2 percent. It looked best in Münsterland with an unemployment rate of only 4.1 percent.
