GERMAN UNEMPLOYMENT is at its lowest for almost two decades, according to figures published this morning.
Figures from the Federal Labour Agency showed that the unemployment rate, when adjusted seasonally, had fallen to 6.7 per cent in January – down from 6.8 per cent in December.
That is the lowest it has been been in almost two decades, when economic stimulus packages in post-reunification Germany provided massive numbers of jobs.
The figures showed that number of people out of work had fallen by 34,000 to 2.85 million – though when seasonal adjustments were removed, the numbers were actually up by 0ver 300,000, with the rate up to 7.3 per cent.
Economists had accounted for this seasonal deviation, and when adjusting the figures had only expected Germany to add 10,000 jobs this month, far fewer than ultimately materialised.
The German figures coincided with data from Eurostat which showed that unemployment in the Eurozone is now at its highest since the single currency was formed, at 10.4 per cent, as of the end of December.
Additional reporting by AP
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