Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BERLIN (AP) - The winter lull pushed Germany's unemployment rate up 0.2 percentage points to 6.7 percent in December.
Figures released by the Federal Labor Office on Tuesday showed that 67,000 more people were out of work last month in Europe's largest economy. That took the total up to 2.87 million.
Analysts had expected the increase, as many contracts expire and construction activity drops in December.
When adjusted for seasonal factors, 15,000 fewer people were out of work and the rate remained unchanged at 6.9 percent for the fourth month in a row.
Varengold Bank analyst Anita Paluch said the figures showed Germany's economy was strengthening and confidence was on the rise.
The average number of jobless over the past year was 2.95 million, an increase of 53,000 compared with 2012.
(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
