City dossier for Bielefeld: live jobs, population, big employers, a net-pay calculator and how it compares with the other large German cities.
In short: Bielefeld is the #18 largest city in Germany (331,605 residents, Eurostat 2025) in North Rhine-Westphalia. 1,475 job ads are live in the city today, mostly in Retail sales (general), Warehousing, postal and delivery, freight handling, Purchasing and sales.
By AtiveSite · Published 07/11/2026 · Updated 07/11/2026 · Every figure is linked to its source below.
331,605residents, 2025 (Eurostat)
1,475live job ads in the city
4ads per 1,000 residents
4.2%unemployment in North Rhine-Westphalia, 2025
Overview
Bielefeld is Germany's #18 city by population: 331,605 residents (Eurostat Urban Audit, 1 Jan 2025), -0.4% since 2016. It lies in North Rhine-Westphalia, which has an unemployment rate of 4.2% and GDP per head of €48,600. Today 1,475 job ads published in the last 28 days are live in the city itself (4 per 1,000 residents).
Places are as the Bundesagentur names them; ads within the radius the agency assigns to the place name.
What the ads say (indicators)
Fixed-term88 (6.0%)
Permanent785 (53.2%)
Not stated602 (40.8%)
Full-time (flag)1,175 (79.7%)
Part-time (flag)307 (20.8%)
Shift / night / weekend (flag)112 (7.6%)
Mini-job (flag)26 (1.8%)
Temporary agency work (Zeitarbeit)376 (25.5%)
Open to career changers (Quereinstieg)123 (8.3%)
Ads stating pay: per hour254 (17.2%)
Ads stating pay: per year193 (13.1%)
Indicators come from structured fields in the ads; many ads leave them blank. They describe current offers, not the whole labour market.
Population
CITY (Bielefeld)Official statistics Source: Eurostat urb_cpop1 · Data: population on 1 January
Sort:
Year ⇅
Population ⇅
Change vs 2016 ⇅
2016
333,090
–
2021
333,509
+0.1%
2025
331,605
-0.4%
Pay & cost
What is left after tax? (estimate)
Type the gross monthly salary you were offered. We apply the 2026 income-tax tariff and employee social contributions.
Method: tax class I (single, no children), no other income, standard work-related expenses €1,230 and special-expenses €36, employee pension/health/care contributions deducted as provisions, income tax by § 32a EStG 2026, solidarity surcharge with the 2026 threshold. It is an estimate: the real payroll uses the official Federal Ministry of Finance payroll tax program, tax class, children, allowances, 13th salary and company benefits, so the payslip will differ. Not advice.
NATIONAL (all Germany)Official statistics Source: Eurostat earn_ses22_28 · Data: reference year 2022 (latest Structure of Earnings Survey)
Mean annual gross earnings of employees in enterprises with 10 or more employees were €48,655 in 2022 (about €4,055 a month): men €54,375, women €42,325. The table splits them by broad occupation group (ISCO-08 major groups).
Managers€111,275
Professionals€72,211
Technicians and associate professionals€53,017
Armed forces occupations€43,730
Clerical support workers€43,425
Craft and related trades workers€42,566
Plant and machine operators and assemblers€40,198
Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers€34,404
Service and sales workers€33,728
Elementary occupations€29,284
Sort:
Occupation group ⇅
Mean annual gross € ⇅
≈ per month € ⇅
Men € ⇅
Women € ⇅
Gap men vs women ⇅
Managers
111,275
9,273
122,563
80,940
34%
Professionals
72,211
6,018
82,041
61,320
25%
Technicians and associate professionals
53,017
4,418
62,701
45,472
27%
Clerical support workers
43,425
3,619
47,200
41,008
13%
Service and sales workers
33,728
2,811
34,866
33,155
5%
Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers
34,404
2,867
35,714
27,822
22%
Craft and related trades workers
42,566
3,547
43,266
35,525
18%
Plant and machine operators and assemblers
40,198
3,350
41,170
34,666
16%
Elementary occupations
29,284
2,440
31,658
27,352
14%
Armed forces occupations
43,730
3,644
46,673
38,801
17%
Gap = (men − women) ÷ men, unadjusted for hours, age, occupation within group or industry. Figures are 2022 and do not include enterprises with fewer than 10 employees; wages have risen since. Groups are broad: a nurse and a doctor are not in the same group, but a baker and an electrician are.
The statutory minimum wage is €13.90 per hour from 1 January 2026 (Eurostat shows a full-time monthly equivalent of €2,343 for 2026, €2,161 for 2025). A further step to €14.60 on 1 January 2027 was set by the Minimum Wage Commission and the Federal Government: confirm on the official site. Mini-job earnings limit 2026: €603 a month (€7,236 a year).
Foreigners
NATIONAL (all Germany)Official guidance Source: Make it in Germany, Federal Foreign Office, BAMF · Data: checked 07/11/2026
EU/EEA and Swiss citizens may live and work in Germany without a work permit; register your address with the local registration office within 2 weeks of moving in (Bundesmeldegesetz).
Skilled workers from other countries normally need a visa/residence permit. The main routes are the permit for qualified professionals (recognised vocational or university qualification and a job offer), the EU Blue Card for university graduates, and the Opportunity Card (Chancenkarte) for job seekers using a points system. See Make it in Germany and the Federal Foreign Office.
EU Blue Card salary minimums 2026: €50,700 gross a year in general and €45,934.20 for shortage occupations and some newcomers, according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior notice published in the Bundesanzeiger (18.12.2025); confirm the current figures on the official sites before applying.
Recognition of qualifications: regulated professions (doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers, engineers in some states) need recognition before you can practise; use the Recognition in Germany portal to find the competent body. Unregulated jobs can start without formal recognition, but a recognised qualification helps for the visa.
Language: many ads ask for German (often B1–B2 level); IT, research and some international companies work in English. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) runs integration and language courses.
Rules change often; this is a starting map, not legal advice.
Nearby cities
CITY → nearest of the 50 largestModelled + official + live Source: GeoNames coordinates (straight-line distance), Eurostat, Bundesagentur feed · Data: 2025
LIVE (Bundesagentur feed, daily snapshot kept by AtiveSite)Own time series Source: AtiveSite daily counts of Bundesagentur ads · Data: tracking since 07/11/2026
Every day we store how many ads are live for Bielefeld. The Bundesagentur publishes no history, so this series becomes unique data. The trend line appears from the second day of tracking; today: 1,475 live ads.
FAQ
How many people live in Bielefeld?
331,605 residents on 1 January 2025 (Eurostat Urban Audit), rank 18 among German cities.
How many jobs are advertised in Bielefeld?
1,475 ads published in the last 28 days are live in Bielefeld itself in the Bundesagentur feed (counted 07/11/2026).
Which state is Bielefeld in?
Bielefeld is in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Is there a minimum wage in Bielefeld?
Yes: €13.90 per hour gross from 1 January 2026, the same everywhere in Germany.
Sources
Live jobs: Bundesagentur für Arbeit – Jobsuche (public job-search interface of the Federal Employment Agency; ads published in the last 28 days; counts by facet)
Wages by single occupation, city and state (the official source we use covers 9 broad occupation groups, 2022). The Federal Employment Agency's pay atlas has no public data interface that we could use.
Rents and living costs by city; kindergarten fees (they differ by state and municipality).
Employee headcount by company for all employers: there is no free national register; we show live hiring and, where Wikidata has a dated figure, a reported group-wide headcount.
Union membership numbers and sector-by-sector collective-agreement pay tables.