Unemployment rise in German amidst economic quagmire -FEA

Emmanuel Thomas, DPA, Saturday, July 01, 2023

 

BERLIN – German unemployment figures rose in June as the difficult economic situation in Europe’s largest economy weighs on the labour market.

A total of 2.555 million people were without a job in June, 11,000 more than in May and 192,000 more than a year ago, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) announced on Friday.

The unemployment rate was unchanged from May at 5.5%, but 0.3 points higher than in June 2022. Germany entered recession in the first quarter of the year.

“We are now experiencing the more difficult economic situation in the labour market. Unemployment is rising and employment growth is losing momentum,” BA boss Andrea Nahles said.

Even without taking Ukrainian refugees into account, unemployment would have risen, the Nuremberg-based agency made clear. It drew on data available up to June 13.

Despite the problems, there is actually a shortage of staff in Germany. The number of job vacancies in June, at around 769,000, was more than 100,000 lower than a year ago but a comparatively high number of jobs are still unfilled.