The labour market in Germany has performed better than expected over the past month with the number of jobless down a seasonally adjusted 1,000 in September from August.
Economists had been forecasting an adjusted rise of 15,000.
The Labour Office said the adjusted number of jobless in Western Germany rose 8,000 in September compared to August; in the east, it fell 9,000 from a month ago.
The unadjusted jobless rate for the whole of Germany in September was 9.5 per cent, down from 9.6 per cent in August, it said.
In the western part of Germany, the unadjusted jobless rate fell to 7.7 per cent from 7.8 in August; in eastern Germany it fell to 17.2 per cent from 17.7 per cent a month ago, the Labour Office said.
The total unadjusted number of jobless in September in Germany fell 76,400 from August to 3,941,800, but was up 198,800 year-on-year, the Labour Office said. PA