German jobless falls back below five million

The number of people out of work in Germany fell back below the key level of five million for the first time this year in April, thanks largely to favourable spring weather, according to the latest official data.

The jobless total in the euro zone's biggest economy fell to 4.968 million in this month from 5.176 million in March, taking the jobless rate down to 12% from 12.5%, the Federal Labour Agency in Nuremberg calculated.

Unemployment in Germany topped five million in the first three months of this year, rising as high as 5.216 million in February, the highest level since World War II.

But job queues usually decline in the spring as better weather allows firms in the construction sector to take on more employees.

Nevertheless, even after adjustment for seasonal factors, the German jobless total declined by 79,000 to 4.889 million in April, separate data published by the Bundesbank in Frankfurt showed. That brought the seasonally adjusted jobless rate down to 11.8% from 12% in March.

A regional breakdown of the numbers showed that unemployment in the economically more important west of Germany declined by a seasonally adjusted 59,000 to 3.222 million this month and the jobless rate down to 9.8% from 10%.

In the former communist east, unemployment fell by 20,000 to 1.667 million in April and the jobless rate eased to 19.3% from 19.5%.

The head of the labour agency in Nuremberg, Frank-Juergen Weise, explained that the unusually long winter this year had meant that the usual seasonal upturn on the labour markets seen in March had been delayed until April.

The data did not therefore not signal any fundamental turnaround in the German jobless figures as economic growth remains sluggish, analysts said.