13 – Personnel Expenses and Employees Personnel expensesThe BASF Group spent €10,659 million on wages and salaries, social security contributions and expenses for pensions and assistance in 2018 (2017: €10,610 million). This amount included personnel expenses from the disposal group for the oil and gas business in the amount of €276 million (2017: €268 million). The increase in personnel expenses is due primarily to the higher average number of employees resulting from the acquisition of significant parts of Bayer’s business and to the higher level of wages and salaries. Particularly the year-on-year higher release of provisions for the long-term incentive (LTI) program as well as currency effects had a countereffect. (XLS:) Download Personnel expenses (Million €) 2018 2017 Wages and salaries 8,470 8,471 Social security contributions and assistance expenses 1,459 1,434 Pension expenses 730 705 Personnel expenses 10,659 10,610 Number of employeesAs of December 31, 2018, the number of employees rose to 122,404 employees compared with 115,490 employees as of December 31, 2017. That includes 2,017 employees in the disposal group for the oil and gas business as of December 31, 2018 (December 31, 2017: 1,985 employees). The increase in the number of employees is due primarily to the acquisition of significant businesses from Bayer in August 2018. As a result, the number of employees rose by more than 4,500 employees. The number of employees in the BASF Group was distributed over the regions as follows: (XLS:) Download Number of employees as of December 31 2018 2017 Europe 75,188 71,653 of which Germany 55,839 54,020 North America 20,069 18,295 Asia Pacific 19,303 18,256 South America, Africa, Middle East 7,844 7,286 BASF Group 122,404 115,490 of which apprentices and trainees 3,174 3,103 temporary staff 3,226 2,550 Employees from joint operations are included in the number of employees as of the year-end relative to BASF’s share in the company. These had a total of 526 employees (2017: 472 employees). The average number of employees was distributed over the regions as follows: (XLS:) Download Average number of employees 2018 2017 Europe 73,067 71,043 of which Germany 54,749 53,390 North America 19,051 17,871 Asia Pacific 18,713 18,132 South America, Africa, Middle East 7,540 7,287 BASF Group 118,371 114,333 of which apprentices and trainees 2,819 2,793 temporary staff 3,120 2,691 Employees from joint operations are included in the average number of employees relative to BASF’s share in the company. On average, these had a total of 492 employees (2017: 437 employees). BASF Group’s average number of employees for 2018 includes 2,021 employees from the disposal group for the oil and gas business (2017: 1,982 employees). back next