The classification of economic sectors (WZ 2008) distinguishes 21 economic sections, which are often further summarized for analysis purposes. For example, the sector of "Public and private services (excluding public administration)" has the most employees subject to social security contributions in the city of Bonn with 62,788 persons, which corresponds to a share of 34.2 percent. This figure does not include employees in public administration, who are reported separately: At 11.8 percent of all employees subject to social security contributions, this sector remains highly relevant in Bonn and comprises 21,684 employees. Freelance, scientific and technical services account for 11.6 percent of all employees, or 21,281 people. With 19,771 employees, more than one in ten (10.8 percent) work in the information and communication sector. In total, these four sectors alone account for more than two-thirds of all employees (125,524 in absolute terms) in Bonn.
Knowledge-based services build employment
Between 2020 and 2021, freelance, scientific and technical services grew significantly in absolute terms, with plus 884 employees (+4.3 percent). Public and private service providers (excluding public administration) made an even greater contribution to employment growth, with an increase of 1,660 employees (+2.7 percent).
As in previous years, the health care and social services sectors were the main drivers of employment growth. Public administration also saw a significant increase, with 869 employees (+4.2 percent). The largest loss in absolute and percentage terms was suffered by the hospitality industry. Here, a total of 672 employees subject to social security contributions were lost, or around one in ten employees (-10.4 percent). This negative trend was already evident in the previous year. Significant losses of -3.5 percent were also seen in the manufacturing sector (-303 employees) and in the retail sector (-374 employees), with a drop of -2.5 percent.
Employment in Bonn grew significantly between 20/21
In summary, it should be noted that the developments in the individual sectors with their respective gains and losses between 2020 and 2021 led to a significant growth in employment of plus 2.0 percent or, in absolute terms, of plus 3,547 employees in Bonn. In the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the trend was also upward - with somewhat less momentum - by 1.8 percent. Overall, the city of Bonn has thus returned to the dynamic "pre-Corona development".
The structural changes of recent years show that employment growth in Bonn has been initiated in particular by the service sector (DL) and that this is where the greatest growth impulses or new jobs can be seen. Therefore, the share of the DL sector in all employees has systematically increased in recent years to now 92.8 percent. In contrast, the manufacturing industry as a whole has lost importance in the economic structure, although this is less due to the absolute change in employment figures (these fluctuate between 13,000 and 14,000 employees) than to the strong dynamic growth in employment in selected branches of the service sector.