A seasonal pickup in job creation has helped push Germany's unemployment rate down to 6.6% in June from 6.8% the previous month.
The Federal Labour Agency said today that 2.865 million people were registered as unemployed, a drop of 72,000 over the month.
When adjusted for seasonal factors, unemployment fell by 12,000 but the rate was steady at 6.8%.
Europe's biggest economy has enjoyed a period of relatively low unemployment in contrast to many of the other European Union countries that use the euro. Spain and Greece have unemployment rates of over 25%.
