German unemployment holds steady in May

The German unemployment rate held steady in May, official data showed on Wednesday, in line with expectations.

According to the Federal Labour Office, the seasonally-adjusted jobless rate was 5.6%, unchanged on the previous month and in line with consensus.

Jobless claims increased by 9,000 to 2.573m, following a 24,000 hike in April. Most analysts had been expecting a rise of around 15,000 in May.

Year-on-year, the number of unemployed people was 284,000 higher.

Daniel Terzenbach, head of the regions at the Federal Labour Office, said: "Despite a weak economy, the labour market is steady overall."

Separately, provisional employment figures from Destatis, the Federal Statistics Office, also released on Wednesday, showed around 45.7m people were in work in April, unchanged on March on a seasonally-adjusted basis. The number had risen by 0.1% in each of the previous two months.

Year-on-year, the number of people in employment edged 0.9% higher.

Melanie Debono, senior Europe economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "The increase in claims in May marks the fourth straight rise, but it was also the slowest in three months, suggesting the rising trend in these figures has slowed.

"But don’t think claims are about to start falling: the IAB’s labour market unemployment barometer suggests unemployment will continue to rise over the coming months. The good news is that hiring intentions remain strong.

"All told, we think the unemployment rate in Germany will hold broadly steady over the coming months. If anything, the risks to our call are to a further increase, as growth remains weak."