This indicator is an indicator of the EU 2020 strategy and also assesses the labor market in economic terms. According to the indicator report, the German government is striving to make better use of the existing labor potential in society in order to avoid a shortage of skilled workers and the underfunding of social security systems. The indicator presented here describes the percentage of the population between the ages of 20 and 64 that is employed. It includes all persons who worked at least one hour a week for pay or profit at a given point in time. Also included are those who were temporarily not working due to vacation or illness. No distinction is made between full-time and part-time. For example, the employment rate increases if a full-time job is split into two part-time jobs. Excluded from this calculation are persons living in collective housing. The federal government's indicator report also shows disaggregated data for women and men and emphasizes that the values for women are significantly lower than those for men. The social aspect of employment is not reflected in this indicator. The data used for this indicator come from Eurostat on the basis of the EU labor force survey. Due to a change in the method of calculation, the data from 2011 onward are only comparable with the data from previous years to a limited extent.

The target value for this indicator, which is to be achieved by 2030, is 78 percent. This value was already achieved in 2015, and it is not clear on what basis this target value was chosen.

For indicators without a set baseline value, 2030Watch uses the SDSN method to orient itself to the second-worst value in the given country comparison.

This is an official indicator of the German Sustainability Strategy.