The number of people without work in Germany fell for the 14th straight month in August, as Europe's largest economy continued to recover on the back of export growth. In seasonally-adjusted terms unemployment fell by 17,000 to 3.19 million, the Nuremburg-based Labour Office said Tuesday 31 August.
In absolute terms the unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 7.6 per cent, or 3.19 million. Some 283,000 fewer people were without work compared with August 2009, as Germany was in the midst of its worst post-war recession.
"The good developments in the economy have again improved the conditions in the labour market. The major indicators are pointing in the right direction," said German Labour Office board member Heinrich Alt at a press conference Tuesday.
Healthy demand in Asian markets, particularly in the automotive and machine-tools sectors, has helped keep the order books of German firms full.
In the second quarter, exports grew by some by 8.2 per cent compared with the first quarter, underpinned by a weak euro. However analysts had predicted a slightly larger fall in the number of jobless.
In seasonally-adjusted terms, experts said that job queues in August should have shortened by up to a seasonally-adjusted 30,000, despite fears that Germany's economic recovery would begin to slow in the second half of 2010.
Slowing economic growth in Germany is expected to follow a fall in global trade, as governments wind back stimulus programs, and the threat of a double-dip recession in the US looms larger. The recovery in Germany's key manufacturing export sector is expected to continue however, albeit at a more modest pace.
© dpa
