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German jobless top 3 million

January 30, 2014

For the first time in 10 months, the number of unemployed in Germany has climbed above 3 million. The January rise was prompted by the winter lull in the job market and is actually lower than usual for the season.

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Image: dapd

In the month of January, some 3.1 million Germans were out of work, which was 263,000 more than in December, the latest figures released by the German Labor Agency (BA) on Thursday showed.

The unemployment rate in Europe's biggest economy climbed by about 0.6 percent to 7.3 percent in the month, the BA said in a statement.

Compared with the same month a year ago, the German unemployment figure was lower by about 2,000 people, it added.

The agency attributed the month-on-month rise to the winter break in some sectors of the economy, most notably in construction. It also noted, however, that if January unemployment was adjusted for seasonal variations the figure would show lower unemployment than usual for the season.

The seasonally-adjusted unemployment figure of 2.9 million people, marked a drop of 28,000 compared with December.

uhe/pfd (dpa, Reuters)