BERLIN, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- The share of employees between the age of 15 and 64 years in Germany working under standard employment conditions stood at 70.3 percent in 2018, the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Wednesday.
Standard employment in Germany is defined as permanent contract with more than 21 hours of working per week and social insurance contributions.
It's for the first time since 2002 that the share exceeded 70 percent.
The share of standard employment hit its lowest level in 2007 at 65.4 percent, Destatis noted.
"Between 2006 and 2018, the number of employees in standard employment rose by around 4 million," Holger Schaefer, senior economist for employment at the German Economic Institute (IW) told Xinhua on Wednesday.
This increase would have been "equivalent to almost 90 percent of all new jobs created" and a "proof" that the upturn in the German labor market would have been "by no means characterized by poor quality of new jobs, but improved living conditions of many people," added Schaefer.
"The current increase" in standard employment would be matched by a decline in atypical employment, such as part-time employment, temporary employment as well as marginal employment, according to Destatis.
Between 2007 and 2018, the proportion of Germans in atypical employment declined from 22.6 percent to 20.1 percent, the Destatis data showed. The share of self-employed Germans declined from 11.1 to 9.3 percent in the same period.
