German unemployment falls sharply

Unemployment in Germany fell by more than forecast in January, as Europe's biggest economy gains momentum, dpa cited data released Thursday by the country's labour office as showing. The seasonally adjusted numbers of those out of work dropped by 28,000 to 2.927 million, after falling by a revised 19,000 in December. The jobless rate remained stable at 6.8 per cent. Analysts had expected seasonally adjusted unemployment, which points to labour market trends, to drop by 5,000 this month. In seasonally unadjusted terms, unemployment jumped by 263,000 to push the numbers out of work to 3.136 million. The unadjusted jobless rate jumped from 6.7 per cent in December to 7.3 per cent in January.