2023.09.2913:41:00UTC+00German Unemployment Rises Less Than Forecast

German unemployment increased less than expected in September despite weak economic activity, official data revealed on Friday.

The number of unemployed increased by only 10,000 in September after climbing 20,000 in August, the Federal Labor Agency said Friday. Unemployment was expected to rise 15,000.

At the same time, the jobless rate held steady at 5.7 percent in September and also matched economists' expectations.

The onset of autumn recovery is comparatively small this year, Daniel Terzenbach, regional director of the Federal Employment Agency said.

Both unemployment and underemployment are falling, but less than usual in September, said Terzenbach. The labor market is still stable, he added. Based on the labor force survey, Destatis said the adjusted unemployment rate held steady at 3.0 percent in August. Unemployment increased by 4,000 or 0.3 percent month-on-month to 1.33 million in August.

On an unadjusted basis, the jobless rate rose marginally to 3.2 percent from 3.1 percent a year ago.

Employment rose 0.8 percent or 342,000 in August from the last year. Destatis said the long-term upward trend on the labor market continued also in the summer months of 2023, although with relatively little momentum.

Another data from Destatis revealed that retail sales declined unexpectedly in August. Retail turnover was down by real 1.2 percent on weak food and non-food sales. Economists had forecast sales to grow 0.5 percent.

Year-on-year, retail sales posted a decline of 2.3 percent, worse than economists' forecast of 0.7 percent drop.

Data today showed that Germany's import prices declined at the fastest pace in almost four decades in August, mainly due to base effect from the surge in prices in the same month last year due to the war in Ukraine.

Import prices fell 16.4 percent annually after a 13.2 percent slump in July. The latest decline was the biggest annual fall in import prices since November 1986.