BERLIN, May 16 (Xinhua) -- German employment has continued its positive trend, hitting a record high in the first quarter 2017, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed on Tuesday.
The number of people in employment in the first three months of the year reached the highest number on record: 43.7 million, according to a provisional calculation.
Compared to the same quarter last year, German employment increased by 638,000 people or 1.5 percent, higher than the year-on-year increase of 1.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Compared to the previous quarter, German employment decreased by 334,000, or 0.8 percent, due to seasonal reasons. After seasonal adjustment, it went up by 203,000 people, or 0.5 percent from last quarter.
Meanwhile, the average number of hours worked per person in employment was up 1.7 percent to 351 hours in the first quarter, compared with the same period a year earlier.
The total number of hours worked rose considerably by 3.2 percent to roughly 15.3 billion hours in the same period, marking the highest level since the third quarter of 1992.
