By Maria Martinez and Friederike Heine
BERLIN, May 29 (Reuters) – The number of unemployed people in Germany fell unexpectedly in May, labour office figures showed on Friday, but the office warned that this was due to a one-off effect.
In seasonally adjusted terms, the jobless figure fell by 12,000, while analysts and economists had predicted an increase of 10,000 in a Reuters poll.
The overall unadjusted number of unemployed people fell below the 3 million mark to 2.95 million.
The decrease is likely mainly due to a counter-effect following the weak April figures, the labour office said.
The seasonally adjusted jobless rate stood at 6.3% in May, 0.1 percentage points lower than the previous month.
“Despite a decline in unemployment, the spring upturn has not really gained momentum this year,” labour office head Andrea Nahles said in a statement.
Economists have warned that increases in unemployment are likely in the coming months as companies tend to make staffing decisions with a delay as they react to geopolitical shocks such as the Iran conflict. In seasonally unadjusted terms, a total of 2.95 million people were unemployed in May, a decrease of 58,000 in the number of people out of work from the previous month.
The absolute number of unemployed had been above the 3 million mark for four consecutive months in unadjusted terms.
In total, 643,000 job openings were registered with the labour office in May, 8,000 more than a year ago.
(Reporting by Friederike Heine and Maria MartinezEditing by Ludwig Burger)
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