Working in Germany - Kinds of Employment

The minimum age for regular employment in a business is 15. Although trainees work in a business as part of their vocational training, they are not employed in the conventional sense and therefore enter into a vocational training contract with the business training them.

The majority of blue-collar workers, white-collar workers and civil servants in Germany (58%) have a fixed-term full-time employment contract with an actual working week of around 40 hours. However, an increasing number of employees wish or have to reduce their working hours temporarily at certain stages of their lives. Consequently, part-time work is widespread and now accounts for over one third of employment in Germany. However, part-time work has many facets. In addition to 'regular' part-time work subject to social security insurance, there are also so-called 'mini jobs' in which it is possible to earn a maximum of EUR 400 a month. Around 6.5 million people are currently employed in 'mini jobs', primarily in the fields of cleaning, health and catering and in the retail trade. At the same time the overall number of temporary contracts is on the increase. Around 12% of employees work on a fixed-term full-time or part-time contract.

For many years the temporary agency sector has also being growing rapidly in Germany and now provides just under 500,000 people with a job. Forms of self-employment have also gained in importance in recent years and account for around 10% of those employed. The share accounted for by self-employed persons without employees also grew sharply.

Text last edited on: 11/2006

Source: European Union
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