German unemployment fell more than expected in December, keeping the jobless rate in Europe's biggest economy at a record low, data from the Federal Labour Office showed today.
"The positive development related to unemployment continued at the end of the year," Frank-Juergen Weise, head of the Federal Labour Office, said.
"The strong increase in employment that has been going on for a long time slowed since the summer months, but demand for new workers remains at a high level," he added.
The seasonally adjusted jobless total fell by 17,000 to 2.638 million, the Labour Office said. That was more than three-fold the 5,000 forecast in a Reuters poll.
The adjusted unemployment rate remained at 6%, the lowest level since German reunification in 1990.
In 2016 as a whole, a record 43.4m people were employed in Germany as the labour market thrives in an environment of a continued economic upswing, low interest rates and increased state spending.
