German unemployment unexpectedly fell for the first time in nine months in July, aided by government measures ahead of September's federal election.
Adjusted for seasonal swings, unemployment fell in July by 6,000 month-on-month, giving a jobless rate of 8.3 per cent, Federal Labour Office data showed today.
Major use of shortened working hours has reduced job losses in Germany, where unemployment has risen by only 300,000 since the global financial and economic crisis intensified with the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers last September.
Statistical changes to how the unemployment figure is calculated also helped restrict the total.
Without these one-off effects, which include stripping out people from the jobless total who are seeking work via private job agencies, there would have been a rise of around 30,000 on the month in July, the Labour Office said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel seeks re-election in September and keeping unemployment in check could prove vital to her bid.
The headline unadjusted unemployment total -- typically more prominent in German media -- rose by 52,000 to 3.462 million.
In recent months, economists have been regularly wrong-footed by German jobless data, but there is a general consensus that increased lay-offs are in the pipeline.
Reuters