By Maria Martinez
BERLIN, June 30 (Reuters) – The number of unemployed people in Germany fell unexpectedly in June, labour office figures showed on Tuesday.
In seasonally adjusted terms, the jobless figure fell by 1,000, while analysts and economists had predicted an increase of 7,000 in a Reuters poll.
The overall adjusted number of unemployed people fell to 2.984 million, below the 3 million mark.
“The labour market has yet to gain real momentum in June,” Deutsche Bank’s economist Marc Schattenberg said. “While the number of unemployed fell in line with typical seasonal trends, it remained virtually stagnant on a seasonally adjusted basis.”
The seasonally adjusted jobless rate stood at 6.3% in June, unchanged from the previous month.
“There is little sign of change in the labour market,” labour office head Andrea Nahles said in a statement.
“Unemployment is falling only slightly, and employment subject to social security contributions is continuing its slight downward trend.”
In seasonally unadjusted terms, a total of 2.94 million people were unemployed in June, a decrease of 15,000 in the number of people out of work from the previous month.
Economists have warned that increases in unemployment are likely in the coming months as companies tend to make staffing decisions with a delay as they react to geopolitical shocks such as the Iran conflict.
“Today’s labour market report provides some positive news. Still, it looks as if the recent downward trend has been paused, rather than ended or reversed,” said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING.
In total, 648,000 job openings were registered with the labour office in June, 16,000 more than a year ago.
(Reporting by Friederike HeineEditing by Miranda Murray, Linda Pasquini, Alexandra Hudson)
By Maria Martinez | Reuters | © Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026.
