I need to find out what the unemployment rate was in Western Germany
from 1950 until 2002. I do not need the amount for every year, but I
need it for at least two years from every decade.

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Request for Question Clarification by gwagner-ga on 13 Dec 2002 15:17 PST

Hi Harijs,
 
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any data for East Germany between 1950
and 1991. The official annual unemployment data for the former East
German provinces are on http://doku.iab.de/zfibel/03_06_01.pdf , the
official data for West Germany from 1950 through 2001 are on
http://doku.iab.de/zfibel/03_06_02.pdf
 
Both these documents are in German. The unemployment figure in per
cent (which I suspect is what you are looking for) is in the second
column of the tables. I'd be happy to try to track down some
unofficial data for East Germany from 1950 through 1991. However, I'd
ask you to upt the price a bit in that case, since I suspect it'll
probably be quite time-consuming.
 
Hope that helps,
gwagner

Oops, sorry, I misread your question when I posted the claification
request above. For some reason I thought you were looking for West AND
East German figures.
 
So yes, I do have an answer for you.
http://doku.iab.de/zfibel/03_06_02.pdf has all the answers you are
looking for. http://doku.iab.de/zfibel/03_06_02.xls is the
corresponding Excel spreadsheet. Total unemployed (in thousands) is in
the first column after the years, percent figures are in the second
column. Here are all the data pasted below, curtsey of the Institut
für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung of the Bundesandstalt für
Arbeit, the statistical division of Germany's central unemployment
office:
 
(Figures are separated by spaces. You can easily copy and paste them
into your favorite spreadsheet program to make them look a bit nicer.)
 
Year	(in Thousands)	(in percent)
1950 1869	11.0
1951	1714	10.4
1952	1652	9.5
1953	1491	8.4
1954	1411	7.6
1955	1074	5.6
1956	876	4.4
1957	754	3.7
1958	764	3.7
1959	540	2.6
1960	271	1.3
1961	181	0.8
1962	155	0.7
1963	186	0.8
1964	169	0.8
1965	147	0.7
1966	161	0.7
1967	459	2.1
1968	323	1.5
1969	179	0.9
1970	149	0.7
1971	185	0.9
1972	246	1.1
1973	273	1.2
1974	582	2.6
1975	1074	4.7
1976	1060	4.6
1977	1030	4.5
1978	993	4.3
1979	876	3.8
1980	889	3.8
1981	1272	5.5
1982	1833	7.5
1983	2258	9.1
1984	2266	9.1
1985	2304	9.3
1986	2228	9.0
1987	2229	8.9
1988	2242	8.7
1989	2038	7.9
1990	1883	7.2
1991	1689	6.3
1992	1808	6.6
1993	2270	8.2
1994	2556	9.2
1995	2565	9.3
1996	2796	10.1
1997	3021	11.0
1998	2904	10.5
1999	2756	9.9
2000	2530	8.7
2001	2478	8.3
 
Data for 2002 will be available in a couple months. Please let me know
if you need any more info. Hope that helps.
 
gwagner

Thanks, tht was exactly what I needed!