Around 12% of all workers in Germany were employed in the public sector in 2023, a slight increase from the previous year, according to government data released on Friday.
A total of 5.3 million people were employed in Germany's public sector as of mid-2023, according to the Federal Statistical Office. That was 60,800 more employees than a year earlier, an increase of 1.2%.
In 2022, public sector workers made up 11% of Germany's total workforce.
"High increases were recorded in schools and childcare facilities in particular," the agency said in the report.
The number of teachers retiring has levelled off after a years-long wave of departures from the profession, the agency said.
Many teachers retired between 2000 and 2020, most of whom had been hired in the 1960s and 1970s, according to the report.
By mid-2023, the number of school employees had risen by 18,900 since the year before to a nationwide total of 1.03 million, an increase of 1.9%.
According to the statistics, the increase in staff numbers at childcare facilities - which has been ongoing for years - also continued. The number of nursery teachers has more than doubled in 15 years.
In mid-2023, 278,900 men and women were employed there, an increase of 11,400, or 4.3%, compared to the year before.
Compared to 2008, the number of childcare workers increased by 104%.