Unemployment in Germany was up again in June. The number of people out of work increased by 9,000 to 2.916 million, according to figures adjusted for seasonal factors like weather. <br /><br />It was the second month running the total has risen unexpectedly.<br /><br />Once again officials blamed the increase on mild winter weather. So more people were employed earlier in the year and the traditional hiring boost in the spring was weaker.<br /><br />Refering to the number of people in work, the jobs agency’s director, Frank-Jurgen Weise, noted that as Germany’s employment level has grown so much in recent years that trend cannot be expected to continue. <br /><br />He said: “I wouldn’t call it a cooling down, but a realistic assessment of the economic situation.”<br /><br />The German jobless rate – against seaonally adjusted – was unchanged at 6.7 percent of the workforce, the lowest in over 20 years. <br /><br />Meanwhile the unemployment stats for the whole of the eurozone were released for May. They remained stable for the second consecutive month at 11.6 percent.<br /><br />That shows that the recovery is far from strong enough to spur solid job creation in all the countries of the region.<br /><br />Joblessness in the single currency area – still close to the record high 12 percent seen last year – is expected to fall only very slowly to 11.4 percent next year, the European Commission says.
