BERLIN: Germany’s unemployment rate remained at a historic low of six per cent in December after the number of people out of work fell more than forecast, according to data released. Jobless queues in Europe’s biggest economy declined by a seasonally adjusted 17,000 to 2.638 million, the Federal Labour Agency said. Analysts surveyed by DPA-AFX had forecast a fall of 5,000.
At six per cent, the jobless rate remained at its lowest level since German unification in 1990. However, in seasonally unadjusted terms unemployment in December climbed by 36,000 to 2.568 million, resulting in the unadjusted jobless rate edging up to 5.8 per cent from 5.7 per cent. Still, the December figure was 113,000 less than a year ago. The unemployment rate for the whole of 2016 edged down to 6.1 per cent from 6.4 per cent in 2015, the labour agency said. This followed a drop in the total numbers out of work also to 2.691 million for 2016, which represented a fall of 104,000 compared with 2015.
