German Unemployment Keeps Falling

The number of people out of work in Germany fell to the lowest level in five months in June, but mainly owing to seasonal rather than fundamental factors, official data showed on Thursday. The German jobless total declined by 103,000 to 4.704 million in raw or unadjusted terms, bringing the jobless rate down to 11.3 percent from 11.6 percent, the Federal Labor Office in Nuremberg calculated. It was the fourth month in a row that the German jobless total had declined. However, labor office chief Frank Weise insisted the decline was "largely due to the usual seasonal pick-up in the labor market" in the spring and summer months, where the better weather enabled firms in the construction and agricultural sectors to take on more workers. "Economic impulses hardly played a role at all" in the decline, Weise said.