Unemployment rates in Germany rose unexpectedly last month, for the first time, since June 2020. New data revealed the situation.
It’s definitely due to the increased lockdown measures that Europe’s largest economy witnessed higher unemployment in February. The pandemic and its new cases forced Germany and other European nations to shut down businesses.
As per the Labour Office, the number of non-working people rose by 9,000 during seasonally adjusted terms to 2.752 million.
The double blow of unemployment and the pandemic
Detlef Scheele, Labour Office chief, said in a statement that “Individual sectors are feeling the effects of the lockdown.”
Since last November, Germany is in a state of strict lockdown. Then the restrictions also increased in mid-December due to rising COVID-19 cases. As a result of that, unemployment also increased gradually.
Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said that a third wave of the virus might arrive soon because the latest variant of Coronavirus is spreading at a higher rate.
Despite the introduction of several vaccines, it’s still a dangerous situation out there. And no country wants to take risks. Germany intends to do that only. However, it’s harming its economy as well as its citizens.
Due to no business, unemployment is forcing many workers to stay inside and leave their jobs.
Moreover, the labor agency also said that 2.39 million workers were on shortened working hours last December. It was under the Kurzarbeit scheme by the government to prevent mass unemployment.
But the bigger picture is not so much positive as the pandemic is still prevailing.
Global economy getting affected
Meanwhile, it’s not just one country that’s suffering because of the Coronavirus. The virus is caused a massive loss to many other nations as well.
Be it private or public sectors, many people are either jobless or working under tight limitations. It’s alarming because they have families to feed. If the circumstances remain unchanged, then the financial crisis may hit them soon.
And a massive economic crisis can result in a lot of shutdowns.
Then there is the problem of dealing with multiple rounds of lockdowns. Just when everyone thought that a vaccine would change everything, a new variant of the virus arrived.
Despite the introduction of several effective vaccines, most of the individuals are still hesitant. It can be due to doubt in them regarding the performance of the vaccines themselves.
And that’s why they are staying inside their homes while also missing on their working hours. It’s not a good sign for any country at the moment. Ultimately, the unemployment rate might grow by a massive margin in the future.
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