Unemployment
Registered unemployment rate, all civilian labour force, annual average, 2025
In 2025 7.0% of the civilian labour force in the eastern states was registered unemployed, 1.19 times the western rate of 5.9%; Berlin stood at 10.3%. Bremen, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland have a higher rate than Brandenburg and Thuringia (6.4%), the lowest in the East. Bremen (11.5%) has the highest state rate, Bavaria (4.0%) the lowest; across districts the rate ranges from 2.4% (Donau-Ries, Unterallgäu and Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen) to 15.2% (Gelsenkirchen). In 1994 the rates were 15.4% in the East and 8.1% in the West: the gap has narrowed from 7.3 to 1.1 percentage points.
Inner-German border 1949–1990 ·401 districts · 2025
Former West
5.9%
excl. Berlin
Former East
7.0%
excl. Berlin
Berlin
10.3%
Germany
6.3%
The East stands at 119% of the West's level (2025).
By state
- Bremen11.5%
- Berlin10.3%
- Hamburg8.3%
- Mecklenburg-Vorpommern8.0%
- Sachsen-Anhalt8.0%
- Nordrhein-Westfalen7.8%
- Saarland7.4%
- Sachsen6.9%
- Brandenburg6.4%
- Thüringen6.4%
- Niedersachsen6.1%
- Schleswig-Holstein5.9%
- Hessen5.8%
- Rheinland-Pfalz5.5%
- Baden-Württemberg4.6%
- Bayern4.0%
2025
Then and now
Drag across the map to compare 1994 with 2025. Both maps share one colour key.
Former West
8.1%
excl. Berlin
Former East
15.4%
excl. Berlin
Berlin
12.1%
Germany
9.6%
The East's figure is 1.9× the West's (1994).
Notes & caveats
- Registered unemployed as a share of all civilian labour force (employees, self-employed, family workers and the unemployed), annual average of the monthly counts. Source of the underlying data: Statistik der Bundesagentur für Arbeit.
- East (without Berlin) and West are our calculation from the published state figures: each state's labour force is derived as unemployed ÷ rate × 100 and summed. Our West rate matches the BA's own West rate (5.9%).
- The BA's own "East" includes Berlin: on that basis the eastern rate for 2025 is 7.8%.
- State, district and Germany rates are as published.
- The comparison year is 1994, the first year in which the BA publishes the rate based on all civilian labour force for every state (1991–1993 only on the narrower basis of dependent employees).
- Hanau (06415) became an independent city on 1 January 2026; in 2025 it is part of Main-Kinzig-Kreis (06435), whose value the map shows for both.
Show the table
| State | Side | 2025 | 1994 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saarland | west | 7.4% | 11.2% |
| Berlin | berlin | 10.3% | 12.1% |
| Brandenburg | east | 6.4% | 14.5% |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | east | 8.0% | 16.2% |
| Sachsen | east | 6.9% | 14.8% |
| Sachsen-Anhalt | east | 8.0% | 16.7% |
| Thüringen | east | 6.4% | 15.6% |
| Schleswig-Holstein | west | 5.9% | 8.1% |
| Hamburg | west | 8.3% | 8.7% |
| Niedersachsen | west | 6.1% | 9.6% |
| Bremen | west | 11.5% | 12.7% |
| Nordrhein-Westfalen | west | 7.8% | 9.8% |
| Hessen | west | 5.8% | 7.3% |
| Rheinland-Pfalz | west | 5.5% | 7.5% |
| Baden-Württemberg | west | 4.6% | 6.7% |
| Bayern | west | 4.0% | 6.1% |