The Federal Labor Agency says the number of Germans unemployed dropped only slightly in October over the previous month, leaving the overall jobless rate unchanged at 6.5 percent.
Labor agency head Frank Weise said Tuesday the numbers show that even though economic growth has slowed amid the European financial crisis the job market overall remains robust.
Overall 2.753 million people were out of work in October, down 35,000 from September. When adjusted for seasonal factors, however, the number of jobless rose 20,000 for an adjusted unemployment rate of 6.9 percent.
October 2012 also saw 16,000 more jobless than in October 2011.
The Economy Ministry this month cut its growth forecast for 2013 to 1 percent from 1.6 percent, though increased this year’s outlook slightly from 0.7 percent to 0.8 percent.
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