BERLIN (Reuters) – German unemployment fell unexpectedly in July, showing resilience in the labour market despite difficult economic conditions.
The Federal Labour Office said on Tuesday that the number of people out of work decreased by 4,000 in seasonally adjusted terms to 2.604 million. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected that figure to rise by 20,000.
Without the inclusion of Ukrainian nationals, however, there would have been an increase in the number of jobless due to the weak economic environment, the office said.
The seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell to 5.6%.
“Companies’ demand for labour remains restrained,” labour office head Andrea Nahles said.
The number of unemployed people is 147,000 higher than in July 2022.
In July, there were 772,000 job openings, 108,000 fewer than a year ago. Although the Federal Labour Office has seen a slowdown in labour demand in the last year, it remains at a high level.
(Reporting by Friederike Heine and Maria Martinez, Editing by Riham Alkousaa)
