German unemployment holds steady at 5.7%

The jobless rate in Germany held steady in September but the number of people in unemployment rose less than expected.

The German unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.7% this month, in line with analysts' forecasts, according to stats out Friday from the Federal Labour Office.

The number of unemployed people rose by just 10,000 to 2.642m in seasonally adjusted terms, down from the 20,000 added in August. This was below the 15,000 consensus forecast.

Not adjusting for seasonal patterns, unemployment actually fell 69,000 to 2.627m.

However, there were just 761,000 job openings during the month, down 113,000 from September 2022.

Commenting on the results, Melanie Debono, senior Europe economist at Pantheon Macroeconnomics, said: "Consistent with evidence of falling economic activity, vacancies are falling and surveys of hiring intentions, such as the PMI employment index, show that firms in both services and manufacturing are now looking to shed workers."

As such, Debono predicts that employment will start to fall from here on out. "Jobless claims rose for the eighth straight month in September. We suspect that this trend will continue and expect further increases in unemployment to push the jobless rate higher over the coming months."