FRANKFURT: German unemployment rose in November, data showed yesterday, amid signs that Europe’s top economy is increasingly feeling the pinch from the debt crisis, but analysts said the figures were better than expected.
In seasonally-adjusted terms, the German jobless total increased by 5,000 to 2.939 million this month, the highest level since August 2011. Analysts had nevertheless been expecting a much bigger rise of around 15,000 after similar double-digit increases in previous months.
And the jobless rate — which measures the number of people claiming dole as a proportion of the working population as a whole — was unchanged at 6.9 percent and therefore close to its record lows, the Federal Labour Agency said in a statement.
“The German economy is increasingly feeling the pull of the recession in Europe. Its already shallow growth path is continuing to lose momentum,” said agency chief Frank-Juergen Weise.
“The labour market has remained comparatively robust so far, but the downturn is increasingly making itself felt. Employment has practically shown zero growth, while seasonally-adjusted unemployment increased slightly in November,” he said.
In raw or unadjusted terms, the total number of people registered as unemployed in Germany slipped by 1,874 to 2.751 million in November and the unadjusted jobless rate was also steady at 6.5 percent, the agency calculated.
While the November data suggested that Germany cannot escape the fallout from a crisis that has pushed many of its eurozone partners into recession, the numbers were better than expected, analysts insisted. “Today’s numbers provide further evidence that the labour market is gradually losing steam.
“However, the lack of qualified employees and still strong labour demand in domestic sectors should make the current slowdown a very gradual one,” said ING Belgium economist Carsten Brzeski. “In fact, if the external environment improves quickly, the slowdown could not only turn out to be gradual but also very short-lived,” he said.
Newedge Strategy analyst Annalisa Piazza also said the data were “less weak than anticipated and show that the effects of the slowing business cycle are still relatively contained in Germany.” Germany has been spared a technical recession so far and a slight contraction in the economy was expected to remain short-lived.
AFP
