The number of employees in the German processing industry increased in August 2008 as compared to August last year. In companies with at least 50 employees 122.400 people found a new job which corresponds to an increase by 2.3%. The total number of employees working in businesses with at least 50 employees amounted to about 5.4 million at the end of August 2008. The most important job generators were once more mechanical engineering and the metal processing industry while in the chemical industry the number of jobs fell slightly.
The total number of hours worked in August 2008 fell by 3.1% to 646 million as compared to August 2007. However, in August this year there were two working days less than last year. Gross wages and salaries amounted to 17.9 billion Euros which is 4.4% more than in August 2007.
Most new jobs were created in the field of mechanical engineering (+5.6%), the metal processing industry (+4.3%) and the motor vehicle industry (+2.5%). Manufacturers of energy generating machines created 2.4% more jobs. In the food industry the number of new jobs increased by just +0.5% whereas in the chemical industry employment was down slightly by 0.2%. 