About 5.3 million people worked in the German processing industry as of the end of April 2008 which is an increase by almost 150.000 people or 2.9% as compared to April last year. In the same period the number of hours worked increased even more significantly by 15.4% to 752 million hours. In April 2008, however, there were three working days less than in April 2007.
Gross wages and salaries amounted to 19.1 billion Euros in April 2008 which corresponds to an increase by 7.4% in comparison with April last year, but is clearly less than the percental increase in hours worked.
Taking a look at the number of employees in the by size most important branches of the German economy it turns out that the biggest increases were registered in mechanical engineering (+6.1%), in the metal processing industry (+5.0%), manufacture of cars and car components (+3.0%) and in the production of electrical devices of any kind with an increase by 2.9%.
On the other hand, much less dynamically than in the processing industry as a whole was the development of employment in the food industry where it grew by +0.9%. In the chemical industry there were even less employees working (-0.2%),
The above figures by the Federal Statistical Office are based on data provided by businesses employing at least 50 people. 