German unemployment remained at historically low levels in September as the recovery in Europe’s biggest economy remained on track, data showed on Wednesday.
The German unemployment rate — which measures the jobless total against the working population as a whole — stood at 6.4 percent in September, unchanged from August and the lowest level since west and east Germany reunited in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall the previous year, the Federal Labour Office said in a statement.
In concrete terms, the number of people registered as unemployed in Germany edged up by a seasonally-adjusted 2,000 to 2.795 million, the Federal Labour Office said.
That was slightly more than expected, as analysts had been pencilling in a decline of around 5,000.
In raw or unadjusted terms, the jobless total decreased by 87,500 to 2.708 million and the unemployment rate fell ton 6.2 percent in September from 6.4 percent in August, the labour office noted.
But unemployment tends to fall in the autumn as students who have signed on for the summer holidays go back to school or college or find training places.
Growth of German gross domestic product (GDP) picked up in the second quarter, the labour office said.
“The latest indicators point to similar momentum in the third quarter as well .. (and) the labour market continues to develop favourably,” it said.