German unemployment still seeing mild winter effects, eurozone jobs numbers little changed
- 10 years ago
Unemployment in Germany was up again in June. The number of people out of work increased by 9,000 to 2.916 million, according to figures adjusted for seasonal factors like weather.
It was the second month running the total has risen unexpectedly.
Once again officials blamed the increase on mild winter weather. So more people were employed earlier in the year and the traditional hiring boost in the spring was weaker.
Refering to the number of people in work, the jobs agency’s director, Frank-Jurgen Weise, noted that as Germany’s employment level has grown so much in recent years that trend cannot be expected to continue.
He said: “I wouldn’t call it a cooling down, but a realistic assessment of the economic situation.”
The German jobless rate – against seaonally adjusted – was unchanged at 6.7 percent of the workforce, the lowest in over 20 years.
Meanwhile the unemployment stats for the whole of the eurozone were released for May. They remained stable for the second consecutive month at 11.6 percent.
That shows that the recovery is far from strong enough to spur solid job creation in all the countries of the region.
Joblessness in the single currency area – still close to the record high 12 percent seen last year – is expected to fall only very slowly to 11.4 percent next year, the European Commission says.
It was the second month running the total has risen unexpectedly.
Once again officials blamed the increase on mild winter weather. So more people were employed earlier in the year and the traditional hiring boost in the spring was weaker.
Refering to the number of people in work, the jobs agency’s director, Frank-Jurgen Weise, noted that as Germany’s employment level has grown so much in recent years that trend cannot be expected to continue.
He said: “I wouldn’t call it a cooling down, but a realistic assessment of the economic situation.”
The German jobless rate – against seaonally adjusted – was unchanged at 6.7 percent of the workforce, the lowest in over 20 years.
Meanwhile the unemployment stats for the whole of the eurozone were released for May. They remained stable for the second consecutive month at 11.6 percent.
That shows that the recovery is far from strong enough to spur solid job creation in all the countries of the region.
Joblessness in the single currency area – still close to the record high 12 percent seen last year – is expected to fall only very slowly to 11.4 percent next year, the European Commission says.