German unemployment unexpectedly posted a slight decline in June in what was the first fall in five months, Federal Labour Office data showed today.
The seasonally adjusted jobless total fell by 1,000 to 4.369 million, leaving the adjusted unemployment rate unchanged at 10.5 per cent, the office said.
"The economic recovery isn't yet strong enough for companies to be taking on more workers," labour office head Mr Frank-Juergen Weise told a news conference. "The effect of labour market policies is preventing an increase in unemployment."
Ms Manuela Preuschl, an economist at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, said the drop in the adjusted jobless total was an encouraging sign that the worst may be over for the German labour market.
"But you should not read too much into a single month's figures," she added. "The coming months will show if we are really approaching a turnaround."
The number of people in work in April, the latest month for which figures are available, fell by 28,000 in seasonally adjusted terms, according to preliminary data.