BERLIN — Germany's unemployment rate held steady at 7.6 percent in August as an improving economy bolstered the labor market, official figures showed Tuesday.
The number of people registered as jobless in Europe's biggest economy edged down by some 4,000 from July in unadjusted terms to 3.188 million, the Federal Labor Agency said. Compared with a year earlier, 283,000 fewer people were out of work.
"The good economic development further improved the situation on the labor market," agency board member Heinrich Alt said. "The important indicators are developing in the right direction."
In seasonally adjusted terms, the jobless rate also was steady at 7.6 percent in August, although the number of unemployed dropped by a sharper 17,000 on the month — the latest in a string of declines, although a little short of economists' forecast of 20,000.
Export growth helped the German economy to grow by 2.2 percent in the second quarter over the previous three-month period. Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, recently forecast that it will grow by about 3 percent in 2010 — up sharply from a previous prediction of 1.9 percent.
Surveys have shown business and consumer confidence continuing to rise.
German unemployment was kept in check at the height of the economic crisis by a government-subsidized short-time work plan that allowed employers to reduce workers to reduce production without cutting their work force.
The job market has remained strong even as the program loses significance. The labor agency estimated that, in June — the latest month for which it has figures — 406,000 people were in the short-work program, 82,000 fewer than in May and down 960,000 on a year earlier.
Participation in the program is down nearly three-quarters from its peak in May 2009, the agency said.
Alexander Koch, an economist at UniCredit in Munich, noted that the August unemployment rate matched the level seen before the 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers helped trigger the global financial crisis.
"Regained strength in industry is the key driver of the robust labor market performance," Koch said. "And assuming a less dynamic but still continuing global recovery, the outlook for the German labor market remains favorable."
"The impressive performance of the labor market can only become a real success story if it eventually leads to a pick-up in private consumption," said Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING in Brussels.
"All ingredients are in place for this to happen now."