Unemployment rises to 7.2% in Germany

People enter a job center in Berlin

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158619.html


Germany's Labor Office has said that the country's unemployment rate hit records in seventeen months, reaching 7.2 percent in December 2010.

The number of jobless people reached to more than three million, DPA reported on Tuesday.

The unadjusted jobless rate nudged up from 7 percent in November to 7.2 percent in December.

The new figure was due to bad weather, with companies shedding staff amid the coldest winter in more than 40 years. Some transport and construction firms lay off workers during Europe's big freeze.

However, economists remained upbeat about the outlook for unemployment in Europe's largest economy.

"The economic dynamic remains intact," said Eckart Tuchfeld, economist with the German bank Commerzbank.

"Unemployment should return to trend in the months ahead and continue falling."

Moreover, economists expect the solid state of the jobs market to help encourage consumer spending after a long period of stagnation.

The European Commission believes that the German economy grew by 3.7 percent last year after it rebounded from its deepest recession in about six decades.

However, growth is projected to ease to 2.5 percent in the coming 12 months.