Germany’s long-troubled labour market continued to improve in February, as the number of people without a job dipped to 3.617 million. That was down by 42,000 than the month before and 630,000 fewer unemployed than a year ago. The joblessness rate fell to 8.6 percent from 8.7 in January.
“The good development of the labour market over the past months continues, socially secured employment is picking up and company demand for workers remains at a very high level,” said Frank-Jürgen Weise, the head of Germany’s Federal Labour Agency in Nuremberg.
The positive developments are in part due to the relatively mild winter this year, which has had less of an impact on seasonal work such as construction. Normally Germany sees a slight increase in unemployment in February.