Nuremberg, Germany - German unemployment declined slightly
in May, cushioned by a rise in the number of short-time workers and a
change in the way statistics are compiled, figures released on
Thursday showed.
The number of jobless fell by 127,000 last month to 3.45 million,
leaving 8.2 per cent of the workforce without jobs, the Federal
Labour Agency said.
'The spring revival reached the labour market later than usual
this year and brought a considerable decrease in the number of people
out of work,' said the head of the labour agency, Frank-Juergen
Weise.
But he warned that labour market indicators failed to show a trend
for the better as Europe's biggest economy struggled to drag itself
out of recession.
Some 1.1 million workers were on short-time working conditions as
factories acted to reduce output because of a fall-off in orders
triggered by the global economic meltdown.
In the key engineering sector, new orders in April slumped by 58
per cent from the same month of the previous year, according to
figures released by the industry's umbrella association VDMA.
Labour Agency officials said short-time working arrangements had
saved hundreds of thousands of jobs from being axed in the
automobile, car parts and engineering branches.
The improved jobless figures were also helped by changes to the
way statistics are compiled. Under the new calculations, people
seeking work through private employment agencies are not classed as
unemployed.
If this category were added to the official figures, the number of
jobless in May would be 3.47 million, a labour agency spokeswoman
said.
In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of jobless rose
by 1,000 to 3.45 million, the agency said.
The improved labour market figures follow generally upbeat
forward-looking surveys this week which showed consumer confidence
and business sentiment on the rise in Germany.
Labour Minister Olaf Scholz said the developments on the job
market were better than expected but warned that the country could
not afford to sit back and relax.
Economists have predicted the number of unemployed could climb to
4.1 million by the end of the year, with the government saying it
expects the nation's economy to contract a dramatic 6 per cent this
year.
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