Jobs in Germany → Germany guide → 50 largest cities → Karlsruhe

Working in Karlsruhe

City dossier for Karlsruhe: live jobs, population, big employers, a net-pay calculator and how it compares with the other large German cities.

In short: Karlsruhe is the #21 largest city in Germany (309,050 residents, Eurostat 2025) in Baden-Württemberg. 2,291 job ads are live in the city today, mostly in Retail sales (general), Mechanical engineering and plant technology, Electrical engineering.
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Karlsruhe on the map of Germany

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By AtiveSite · Published 07/11/2026 · Updated 07/11/2026 · Every figure is linked to its source below.

309,050residents, 2025 (Eurostat)
2,291live job ads in the city
7ads per 1,000 residents
3.3%unemployment in Baden-Württemberg, 2025

Overview

Karlsruhe is Germany's #21 city by population: 309,050 residents (Eurostat Urban Audit, 1 Jan 2025), +0.4% since 2016. It lies in Baden-Württemberg, which has an unemployment rate of 3.3% and GDP per head of €58,300. Today 2,291 job ads published in the last 28 days are live in the city itself (7 per 1,000 residents).

See all jobs in Karlsruhe →Baden-Württemberg state guideAll 50 cities

Jobs

LIVE · CITY (Karlsruhe) Live feed Source: Bundesagentur Jobsuche · Data: ads published in the last 28 days · counted 07/11/2026

2,291 live ads. The tables below count ads by field, occupation, employer and place.

Top fields (Berufsfelder)

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Top occupations

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Occupation ⇅German title ⇅Live ads ⇅Share ⇅
Mechatronics technicianMechatroniker/in472.1%
Salesperson (retail)Verkäufer/in452.0%
Electrical engineerIngenieur/in - Elektrotechnik421.8%
Warehouse and transport assistantHelfer/in - Lagerwirtschaft, Transport401.7%
Industrial mechanicIndustriemechaniker/in391.7%
Retail clerkKaufmann/-frau - Einzelhandel381.7%
Warehouse logistics specialistFachkraft - Lagerlogistik351.5%
Informatiker/inInformatiker/in341.5%
Office management clerkKaufmann/-frau - Büromanagement331.4%
Sales assistantHelfer/in - Verkauf321.4%
Civil engineerIngenieur/in - Bau311.4%
Electronics technician (energy and building)Elektroniker/in - Energie- und Gebäudetechnik291.3%
BookkeeperBuchhalter/in281.2%
Plumbing, heating and AC fitterAnlagenmechaniker/in - Sanitär-, Heizungs- und Klimatechnik261.1%
Forklift driverGabelstaplerfahrer/in261.1%
Commercial specialistKaufmännische Fachkraft261.1%
Office clerkBürokaufmann/-frau251.1%
AssemblerMontierer/in251.1%
Softwareentwickler/inSoftwareentwickler/in251.1%
IT specialist (systems integration)Fachinformatiker/in - Systemintegration210.9%
Social worker / social pedagogueSozialarbeiter/in / Sozialpädagoge/-pädagogin210.9%
Industrial electronics technicianElektroniker/in - Betriebstechnik200.9%
Elektroniker/in - Geräte und SystemeElektroniker/in - Geräte und Systeme190.8%
Cleaning assistantHelfer/in - Reinigung190.8%
Industrial electricianIndustrieelektriker/in - Betriebstechnik190.8%

Employers with the most ads

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Staffing agencies (Zeitarbeit) are included; see each employer page for the flag.

Places with the most ads

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Place ⇅Live ads ⇅Share ⇅
Karlsruhe, Baden2,291100.0%

Places are as the Bundesagentur names them; ads within the radius the agency assigns to the place name.

What the ads say (indicators)

Fixed-term74 (3.2%)
Permanent1,366 (59.6%)
Not stated851 (37.1%)
Full-time (flag)1,911 (83.4%)
Part-time (flag)386 (16.8%)
Shift / night / weekend (flag)135 (5.9%)
Mini-job (flag)60 (2.6%)
Temporary agency work (Zeitarbeit)749 (32.7%)
Open to career changers (Quereinstieg)111 (4.8%)
Ads stating pay: per hour374 (16.3%)
Ads stating pay: per year326 (14.2%)

Indicators come from structured fields in the ads; many ads leave them blank. They describe current offers, not the whole labour market.

Population

CITY (Karlsruhe) Official statistics Source: Eurostat urb_cpop1 · Data: population on 1 January

Sort:
Year ⇅Population ⇅Change vs 2016 ⇅
2016307,755–
2021308,436+0.2%
2025309,050+0.4%

Climate

CITY (modelled grid cell at the city centre) Reanalysis model, not a station Source: ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo · Data: monthly averages 1991–2020

Typical year: coldest month Jan (+2.3 °C), warmest Jul (+20.5 °C), about 818 mm of precipitation a year.

Jan+2.3 °C · 69 mm
Feb+3.1 °C · 61 mm
Mar+6.6 °C · 70 mm
Apr+10.7 °C · 52 mm
May+14.8 °C · 79 mm
Jun+18.4 °C · 68 mm
Jul+20.5 °C · 70 mm
Aug+20.4 °C · 62 mm
Sep+16.0 °C · 63 mm
Oct+11.4 °C · 68 mm
Nov+6.4 °C · 71 mm
Dec+3.3 °C · 85 mm
Sort:
Month ⇅Mean temperature °C ⇅Precipitation mm ⇅
Jan2.369
Feb3.161
Mar6.670
Apr10.752
May14.879
Jun18.468
Jul20.570
Aug20.462
Sep16.063
Oct11.468
Nov6.471
Dec3.385

ERA5 is a global reanalysis on a grid of about 25 km: good for comparing places, not a replacement for the German Weather Service station data.

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.

See the tax and contribution tables. The calculator below applies them.

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 ⇅
Managers111,2759,273122,56380,94034%
Professionals72,2116,01882,04161,32025%
Technicians and associate professionals53,0174,41862,70145,47227%
Clerical support workers43,4253,61947,20041,00813%
Service and sales workers33,7282,81134,86633,1555%
Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers34,4042,86735,71427,82222%
Craft and related trades workers42,5663,54743,26635,52518%
Plant and machine operators and assemblers40,1983,35041,17034,66616%
Elementary occupations29,2842,44031,65827,35214%
Armed forces occupations43,7303,64446,67338,80117%

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.

NATIONAL Law Source: Statutory minimum wage (MiLoG) + Eurostat earn_mw_cur · Data: from 1 January 2026

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

Rules change often; this is a starting map, not legal advice.

Nearby cities

CITY → nearest of the 50 largest Modelled + official + live Source: GeoNames coordinates (straight-line distance), Eurostat, Bundesagentur feed · Data: 2025

Sort:
City ⇅Straight-line km ⇅Population 2025 ⇅Live ads ⇅
Ludwigshafen am Rhein52 km177,222837
Mannheim53 km318,0352,460
Stuttgart61 km612,6633,646
Darmstadt97 km167,0291,209
Saarbrücken104 km182,971906
Mainz108 km224,6841,266
Freiburg im Breisgau119 km237,4601,201
Wiesbaden120 km288,8501,299

Compare

Compare this city with another

Momentum

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 Karlsruhe. The Bundesagentur publishes no history, so this series becomes unique data. The trend line appears from the second day of tracking; today: 2,291 live ads.

FAQ

How many people live in Karlsruhe?

309,050 residents on 1 January 2025 (Eurostat Urban Audit), rank 21 among German cities.

How many jobs are advertised in Karlsruhe?

2,291 ads published in the last 28 days are live in Karlsruhe itself in the Bundesagentur feed (counted 07/11/2026).

Which state is Karlsruhe in?

Karlsruhe is in Baden-Württemberg.

Is there a minimum wage in Karlsruhe?

Yes: €13.90 per hour gross from 1 January 2026, the same everywhere in Germany.

Sources

Data gaps we know about (not guessed)

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