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The number of unemployed people in Germany rose by the biggest amount in more than a year as vacancies fell in October, adding to signs of cracks in Europe’s labour market.
The German jobless rate climbed to 5.8 per cent in October — its highest level since June 2021 — as the stagnating economy and higher borrowing costs drove more companies to cut jobs.
The federal employment agency reported a seasonally adjusted increase of 30,000 unemployed people from a month earlier, taking the jobless total in Europe’s largest economy to 2.61mn, up 165,000 from a year earlier.
However, the agency said the arrival of more than 1mn refugees from Ukraine last year had also helped push up the jobless rate.
Germany’s unemployment rate has risen from 5 per cent in March 2022, shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour. The agency said an influx of Ukrainian refugees to Germany added 0.4 percentage points to its jobless rate.
It also said the number of job vacancies posted by companies fell to 749,000 in October, down 12,000 from the previous month and 98,000 from a year earlier.
Germany’s economy shrank 0.1 per cent in the three months to September from the previous quarter, according to data published this week, confirming its place as one of the world’s weakest major economies.
Andrea Nahles, head of the country’s employment agency, said Germany’s long period of economic stagnation stretching back to last winter “cannot remain without visible consequences for the labour market”. But she added: “In view of the economic data, it is holding up comparatively well.”
The unemployment rate for the wider eurozone is expected to remain at a record low for the bloc of 6.4 per cent when that figure is published on Friday.
Source: Economy - ft.com
