Frankfurt, Sept 04: Germany's unemployment rate remained stuck at 10.4 per cent in August, with nearly 300,000 more people out of work than at the same time last year, the government said today. The number of unemployed dipped to 4.314 million, a drop of 37,800 from July, the federal labour office said. But it was 296,024 more than in August 2002.
Although some economists predict a modest upswing in the German economy, labour office head Florian Gerster said the economy still wasn't showing growth that would produce new jobs. ``A cyclical improvement of the labor market is not yet noticeable,'' Gerster said. Germany's economy shrank by 0.1 per cent in the second quarter compared to the quarter before.
The numbers once again underlined the lagging economy in the formerly communist eastern Germany, where the rate was 18.2 per cent, compared to 8.2 per cent in the west. Germany's unemployment rate has dogged Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who has proposed limited reforms of the welfare-state system in an attempt to boost the economy and create jobs.
Schroeder has proposed reducing expensive benefits and worker protections that business says increase the cost of labor and discourage hiring. Bureau Report