FRANKFURT, Feb 27 (AFP): Spring has arrived on the German labour market, with unemployment in Europe's largest economy falling for the third month in a row in February, data showed on Thursday.
The number of people registered as unemployed in Europe's top economy fell by 14,000 to 2.914 million in seasonally adjusted terms this month, the Federal Labour Office said in a statement.
That is the lowest level since September 2012.
The unemployment rate, which measures the number of people looking for work as a proportion of the working population as a whole, was unchanged at 6.8 percent in seasonally-adjusted terms in February, the Federal Labour Office said.
In raw or unadjusted terms, the German jobless total edged up only slightly 2,065 to 3.138 million while the unadjusted jobless rate was also unchanged at 7.3 percent, the office calculated.
"The development on the labour market in February was favourable. In seasonally adjusted terms, unemployment declined once again," said labour office chief Frank-Juergen Weise.
"Prospects for the unemployed are gradually improving," Weise said.
Labour Minister Andrea Nahles agreed.
"The spring in Germany promises to be a good one," she said.
"Economic prospects give rise to hope that the labour market will continue to develop positively," the minister said.
Berenberg Bank economist Christian Schulz noted that the underlying strength of Germany's labour market could be seen even more clearly from the employment numbers.
Earlier, the federal statistics office Destatis had estimated that the number of people in jobs rose by 44,000 in January, the last month for which data are available.
"Robust growth in employment paired with only modest declines in unemployment is a sign of a tightening labour market, where companies have to bid for the best workers and offer them stable employment contracts," Schulz said.
"That should boost wage growth in 2014 and points to stronger consumer spending joining rebounding investment as a resilient driver of German output growth in 2014," the expert said.
Natixis economist Johannes Gareis also said that the labour market had been a key driver of Germany's growth in recent months.
