The numbers out of work in Germany dropped by a seasonally unadjusted 103,000 in June, sources told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Thursday. This brought the headline unemployment number in Europe's biggest economy down to 4.704 million with the jobless rate falling from 11.6 per cent in May to 11.3 per cent in June. In also reporting the new jobless data, Berlin's daily Tagesspiegel said unemployment recorded its biggest fall in five years in June. While Germany's political parties often focus on the seasonally unadjusted number, the more market-sensitive adjusted number is due to be released at about 10:00 a.m. (0900 GMT) when the Federal Labour Office publishes details of the latest unemployment figures The numbers out of work, however, are still about 471,000 more than the same month last year. But this largely reflects reforms introduced at the start of the year by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrat-led government which resulted in welfare beneficiaries being included on the jobless rolls.
