German jobless rate up to 7.4% in February

Official data shows that Germany's unemployment rate edged up to 7.4 per cent in February, due to a spell of bitterly cold weather.

The Federal Labour Agency said today the unadjusted jobless rate was up from 7.3 per cent in January. The number of people registered as unemployed was 3.11 million — that's 26,000 more than in January but 203,000 fewer than a year ago.

Germany's job market is nonetheless remains in a good condition after two years of strong economic growth.

Its strength contrasts with high unemployment in economically weaker countries that have been hit hard by the eurozone debt crisis. Spain and Greece have jobless rates above 20 per cent.