German jobs market in rude health in April

Unemployment claims in the Eurozone's largest economy slipped more than expected in April amid what some analysts described as fresh signs that bottlenecks are forming in the country's labour market.

German jobless claims dropped by 15,000 last month, following a 29,000 person drop in March, according to the Federal Labor Office.

That was more than the 11,000 reduction which economists had penciled in.

The unemployment rate was steady at 5.8%.

Following what he said was slowing momentum in the jobs maarket during the first quarter, "now the data are hitting new records on a monthly basis, and it is difficult to gauge just how much further the trend can go on," said Claus Vistesen, chief Eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Vistesen pointed to the lengthy list of job vacancies, which were running at 27.5% of total registered unemployment, to back his case up.

That also leads him to the conclusion that wage pressures are set to rise further in 2017.

Growth in employment was also holding up, holding at a 1.5% year-on-year clip, the data revealed.

"These data were revised up significantly at the start of 2017, indicating that the trend in employment growth has accelerated in the past six-to-nine months. Survey data suggest that growth will stay at 1.4%-to-1.5% in the next three months."

Nonetheless, separate data from IAB indicated that this was as good as it was going to get in the short-term for German claims numbers, Vistesen said.