Germany's unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in nearly 15 years in September, dropping to 8.4 percent as the labor market benefits from the ongoing upturn in Europe's biggest economy, AP QUOTED the government's labor agency as saying Thursday. The unadjusted jobless rate was down from 8.8 percent in August, and at its lowest level since December 1992, the Federal Labor Agency said. The Federal Labor Agency said that 3.543 million people were registered unemployed this month _ 162,000 fewer than a month earlier, and the best showing since October 1995. Compared with last September, when the jobless rate was 10.1 percent, 694,000 fewer people were jobless. Unemployment figures typically improve in September as businesses step up hiring after the summer vacation. Still, labor agency chief Frank-Juergen Weise said that «the autumn upturn is particularly strong _ unemployment declined more strongly than on average over recent years.» In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of unemployed Germans fell by 50,000 on the month _ better than the 20,000 forecast of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires. The adjusted jobless rate dipped to 8.8 percent from 8.9 percent. Germany has been emerging over the past two years from a lengthy period of economic stagnation that pushed up unemployment and prompted Germans to tighten their purse strings, leading to slack consumer demand. Much of the current recovery is powered by exports into a growing world economy. «The current strong figures underscore that the upswing on the German labor market is intact,» Alexander Koch, an economist at UniCredit in Munich, wrote in a research note. Strong order backlogs are helping keep businesses' hiring plans at «elevated levels,» he added. «Hence, despite the increased uncertainty due to the U.S. subprime crisis and the observable moderation in economic activity, the already much-enhanced situation in the German labor market should improve further,» Koch said. Surveys this month have shown drops in business, consumer and investor confidence, raising expectations that economic growth will slow at least temporarily. Still, the labor agency said it was sticking to its prediction that unemployment would average 3.8 million over the course of this year, despite the financial market turbulence that has rippled through global markets in the wake of the U.S. subprime lending crisis. That would compare with last year's average of nearly 4.5 million _ giving an average jobless rate of 10.8 percent. The unadjusted jobless rate peaked at 12.6 percent in February 2005, when the number of Germans out of work reached a post-World War II record of 5.216 million. «We are moving with firm steps in the right direction,» said Vice Chancellor Franz Muentefering, who is also Germany's labor minister. «And about a million jobs are open _ there are further opportunities.»
