German Jobless Rate at Record Low as Confidence Improves

Labor agency said that demand for workers on the way now.

German unemployment fell and the jobless rate reached a record low as businesses and investors become more confident that Europe’s largest economy will keep growing.

The number of people out of work fell a seasonally adjusted 14,000 to 2.87 million in November, the Federal Labor Agency in Nuremberg said today. Economists forecast a decline of 1,000, according to the median of 34 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Theadjusted jobless rate was 6.6 percent, matching the revised number for the previous month and marking the lowest level in records going back more than two decades.

Germany’s economy returned to growth in the third quarter and business confidence and investor sentiment both improved in November as the European Central Bank added stimulus to the euro area. Even so, the Bundesbank says momentum will be lacking until at least the end of the year.

“The German labor market is running very close to full employment and shows no signs of significant slowdown in spite of slower growth,” said Evelyn Herrmann, European economist at BNP Paribas SA in London.

Unemployment fell by 9,000 in western Germany and 5,000 in the eastern part of the country, today’s report showed.

The euro fell after the report and traded at $1.2468 at 11:03 a.m. in Frankfurt, down 0.3 percent today. Germany’s DAX Index (DAX) of 30 biggest stocks climbed 0.7 percent to 9987.34.