{"id":386088,"date":"2025-08-31T00:45:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T00:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/386088\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T00:45:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T00:45:17","slug":"german-unemployment-tops-three-million-people-for-first-time-in-a-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/386088\/","title":{"rendered":"German unemployment tops three million people for first time in a decade"},"content":{"rendered":"

BERLIN \u2013 The number of unemployed people in Germany has topped three million for the first time in a decade, labour office figures showed on Aug 29, raising the stakes for the government\u2019s huge investment plans to deliver quick results.<\/p>\n

A total of 3.02 million people were unemployed in August in seasonally unadjusted terms, with an increase of 46,000 in the number of people out of work from the previous month. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe labour market is still shaped by the economic slump of recent years,\u201d said labour office head Andrea Nahles.<\/p>\n

Germany has been struggling with a persistently weak economy, and US President Donald Trump\u2019s import tariffs <\/p>\n

could lead to a third year without growth<\/p>\n

<\/a> for the first time.<\/p>\n

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate remained stable at 6.3 per cent, in line with analysts\u2019 forecast in a Reuters poll.<\/p>\n

But <\/p>\n

labour demand is slowing<\/p>\n

<\/a>. There were 631,000 job openings in August, 68,000 fewer than a year ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe global economic uncertainties and Russia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine are still leading to economic weakness,\u201d Labour Minister Baerbel Bas said. \u201cThe cyclical headwinds continue to leave their mark on the labour market and require countermeasures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Bas said the government is providing a big investment boost for the economy, including a \u20ac500 billion (S$749 billion) special fund for infrastructure, after loosening fiscal rules.<\/p>\n

But economists and business associations say it will take years for the spending to fully take effect, and extra measures are needed to address the deep-rooted structural problems in Europe\u2019s biggest economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree million unemployed is a damning indictment of the refusal to reform in recent years,\u201d said Dr Rainer Dulger, president of the Confederation of German Employers\u2019 Associations (BDA). \u201cGermany needs a genuine \u2018autumn of reforms\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many households are saving more because they are worried about the future and this will increase with bad news from the labour market, even if the rise in unemployment is not very large and no surprise, Ifo Institute president Clemens Fuest said.<\/p>\n

German retail sales fell much more than expected in July, separate data showed on Aug 29, clouding the outlook for consumption in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Retail sales fell 1.5 per cent from June. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a 0.4 per cent decrease.<\/p>\n

Some analysts had been hoping that, with US tariffs cooling foreign demand, domestic consumers would pick up the slack.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, these hopes were disappointed in July,\u201d said Dr Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank.<\/p>\n

German import prices fell 1.4 per cent year on year in July, the statistics office said on Aug 29. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a 1.2 per cent decrease.<\/p>\n

Since Germany buys many primary products and raw materials from abroad, higher import prices are reflected in inflation data with a time lag.<\/p>\n

Inflation rose in four of the biggest German states in August, preliminary data showed on Aug 29, suggesting that national inflation could also increase that month, in line with analysts\u2019 forecasts for a rise to 2 per cent from 1.8 per cent in July. REUTERS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN \u2013 The number of unemployed people in Germany has topped three million for the first time in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-386088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115120617947074496","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}