German labour market feels first chills of slowdown

Germany’s largely resilient labour market showed early effects of a gathering slowdown in July, official data showed Wednesday, as authorities highlighted falling demand for new workers and employment growth petering out.

Federal labour agency (BA) chief Detlef Scheele said in a statement that  “companies’ demand for new employees fell back slightly and employment continued rising, but with less momentum than before”.

Seasonally-adjusted figures showed five percent of people out of work this month, the same level as in May and June.

But in absolute terms -- widely referenced in public debate but less representative of underlying trends -- unemployment increased 0.1 percentage point month-on-month, to 5.0 percent or 2.3 million people out of work.

Germany’s economy returned to growth in the first six months after brushing past a technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of shrinkage, in late 2018.