German joblessness up slightly

Germany's Federal Labor Office (BA) said Tuesday it recorded 23,000 job-seekers more across the country in August as compared with the previous month.

The total number of jobless people rose to 2.796 million, the agency said at a news conference in Nuremberg.

BA President Frank-Jürgen Weise hastened to add that the August figure meant a decrease by 106,000 in a year-on-year comparison, adding that it was the lowest figure recorded for any August since 1991, after German reunification. The official unemployment rate reached 6.4 percent, up from 6.3 percent in July in unadjusted terms.

Robust labor market

"The labor market continues to develop favorably, Weise said in a statement, adding that "the reason for the slight increase is to be seen in the usual weakness during the main summer months."

Adjusted for seasonal effects, there were 7,000 fewer job-seekers in August than in the previous month, with analysts only having penciled in a drop of between 2,000 and 4,000.

Labor market experts viewed Tuesday's figures as renewed proof that Germany had been able to better adapt to the eurozone crisis than most of the other 18 members states of the single-currency bloc.

In the eurozone as a whole, unemployment fell to 10.9 percent in July from 11.1 percent in June, Eurostat reported on Tuesday.

The figure marked the lowest level since February 2012, but the unemployment rate was still at an uncomfortably high level for the currency union, with a total of 17.5 million people out of work across the bloc.

Italy, Spain and Portugal showed slight improvements, while huge disparities remained in place as Spain and Greece logged jobless rates well above the 20-percent mark (22.2 percent and 25.0 percent respectively).

hg/sgb (dpa, Reuters, AP)