The unemployment statistics do not include those who are supported by labor market policy instruments. This applies to further education and training as well as training and job creation measures. Anyone who has a one-euro job or receives a start-up grant is not officially unemployed.
Also not recorded are all persons over the age of 58 who have been receiving unemployment benefit II for at least twelve months and have not been offered any employment subject to social insurance contributions during this time.
In addition, the employment agency removes from the statistics all those who make placement difficult because they are on sick leave or do not fulfill their duties when looking for a job. They all fall into the category of underemployed. In addition to the unemployment rate, the number of underemployment also appears in the statistics. It is calculated by adding the official unemployment rate and the number of strictly underemployed.
For example, the employment agency in Thuringia reported almost 88,000 underemployed (not including short-time work) in September 2020. This corresponds to a rate of 7.7 percent. “Only” around 68,100 were officially registered as unemployed. As a result, almost 20,000 women and men were added who are missing from the official unemployment rate. This does not even include the employees on short-time work who are particularly affected in the Corona period.