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12. Personnel expenses/employees

Personnel expenses declined by €80 million to €7,491 million in 2008 (2007: €7,571 million). Changes in exchange rates diminished personnel expenses by €175 million.

	2007	2008
	€ million	€ million
Wages and salaries	5,960	5,978
Social expenses and expenses for pensions and other benefits	1,611	1,513
of which for defined-contribution pension plans	410	431
of which for defined-benefit pension plans	294	195
Total	7,571	7,491

The personnel expenses shown here do not contain the interest portion of the allocation to personnel-related provisions, which is included in the non-operating result as other non-operating expense. These personnel-related provisions are mainly for employee pensions (see Note [13.3]).

The average number of employees classified by corporate functions is shown in the table below.

	2007	2008
Production	48,250	48,384
Marketing	35,849	38,006
Research and development	11,732	11,914
General administration	9,791	8,995
Total	105,622	107,299
of which trainees	2,631	2,623

The employees of joint ventures are included in the above figures in proportion to Bayer’s interests in the respective companies. The total number of people employed by joint ventures in 2008 was 60 (2007: 66).

The average number of employees is stated in full-time equivalents, with part-time employees included on a pro-rata basis in line with their contractual working hours.

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