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German unemployment down in November

November 30, 2017

Europe's largest economy keeps powering ahead amid higher growth on the continent and elsewhere, creating more and more jobs and driving the unemployment rate down to its lowest level since German unification in 1990.

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Deutschland Baustelle polnischer Arbeiter
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Dedert

German joblessness fell more than forecast in November, with the number of people out of work dropping by another 20,000 from October to 2.386 million, the German Labor Agency (FA) said on Thursday.

Read more: Exports, investment drive German growth in third quarter

According to the data, November unemployment was 164,000 lower than in the same month last year. Germany's shrinking jobless queues also caused the unemployment rate to edge down to 5.3 percent from 5.4 percent in the previous month.

"The very good development on the labor market continues," said Valerie Holsboer, a member of the Labor Agency board.

In terms adjusted for seasonal variations, the number of Germans fell to 2.476 million, down by 12,000. Analysts surveyed by dpa-AFX had forecast a 10,000 fall in November, the Nuremberg-based Labor Agency said.

Germany's robust labor market is the result of a robust upswing in economic activity this year that saw the country's growth rate jump from 0.6 percent in the first quarter of the year to 0.8 percent between July and September.

Read more: OECD: Investment needed to sustain global growth

The solid performance raised the prospect that the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) could expand well beyond for the whole of 2017, which would be the fastest rate in six years.

Low-key German firms boast high performance

Eurozone acceleration helps

Low German unemployment is also the result of growing demand for the country's goods and services in the 19-nation eurozone. As the economic outlook for the currency area has been improving in recent months, the bloc's unemployment crisis seems to be waning.

According to latest figures, published by the EU statistics office, Destatis, on Thursday, eurozone unemployment dropped to 8.8 percent in October, the lowest level recorded since January 2009.

Overall, about 14.3 million people were unemployed in the eurozone - a decrease of 88,000 since September. However, youth unemployment remained rampant at 18.6 percent, with the month-on-month drop of only 0.1 percent suggesting that young people continue to be sidelined in the current recovery.

Europe's lowest unemployment rate was recorded in the Czech Republic, ahead of Malta and Germany. Job creation in Greece and Spain continued lagging behind in October. In the 28-country European Union, seasonally adjusted unemployment fell to 7.4 percent, down by 0.1 percent from September.

uhe/nz (Reuters, dpa)