Unemployed: number increases only slightly

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Employment agency in Oldenburg

Photo: Hauke ​​Christian Dittrich / dpa

The number of unemployed in Germany rose slightly in February to 2.62 million.

That was 4,000 more than in January and 192,000 more than a year ago, the Federal Employment Agency said.

The rate remained stable at 5.7 percent.

"Overall, the job market has been stable despite the tense economic situation," said the authority's chairwoman, Andrea Nahles.

Without the Ukrainian refugees, unemployment would have increased only slightly year-on-year.

For its current statistics, the Federal Agency used data that was available up to February 13th.

Short-time work has recently increased again as a result of the economic strain in Germany.

The latest data on how many employees claimed short-time work benefits is available for December 2022: According to extrapolated data from the Federal Agency, 183,000 people received short-time work benefits at the time.

From February 1st to 23rd, companies announced short-time work for 61,000 employees.

Experience has shown that the number of people who actually go on short-time work is lower.

According to the Federal Agency, the demand for workers has declined in Germany since early last summer.

Nevertheless, the need for personnel is still at a high level, it said.

In February, 778,000 vacancies were reported, 44,000 fewer than a year ago.

mic/dpa