BERLIN, March 29 — Germany’s unemployment rate fell again in March, striking a new historic low since reunification in 1990, figures showed today, as a job boom in Europe’s biggest economy extended its run.
Just 4.9 per cent of people were out of work in Europe’s largest economy in March, the Federal Labour Agency (BA) said in seasonally-adjusted figures.
“With the onset of spring recovery, unemployment continued to fall in March,” BA chief Detlef Scheele said in a statement.
The positive development in jobless figures came even though business and investor confidence has fallen in Germany as the gross domestic product (GDP) stagnated in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Berlin has also lowered sharply its economic forecast for this year to just 1.0 per cent.
“Although the economic tailwind has eased, the labour market continues to develop favourably,” added Scheele.
In unadjusted figures, less representative of underlying trends but more closely followed in public debate, the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 5.1 per cent or 2.3 million people.
“The labour market remains the best possible insurance against recession fear, even though very tentative signs of a cooling have emerged,” commented ING economist Carsten Brzeski.
Across Germany, the unemployment rate for the month is lowest in the southern states of Bavaria, at 3.0 per cent, and Baden-Wuerttemberg at 3.1 per cent.
In comparison, the northern city of Bremen posted the national high at 9.8 per cent, while Berlin comes in joint second at 7.8, matched only by the north-east state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. — AFP
