blog 12-unemployment

Unemployment drops sharply in April

In another sign of recovery in Europe's biggest economy, figures published Thursday showed the German unemployment dropped sharply in April to 8.1 percent of the workforce from 8.5 percent in March. There was an unexplectedly strong springtime upturn on the labour market in April. The current trend is encouraging. This was said by the head of the Federal Labour Agency Frank-Jurgen Weise. The seasonally- adjusted rate fell for the fifth straight month and posted its sharpest drop since early 2008 to 7.8 percent, Capital Economics senior European economist Jennifer McKeown noted.

ING senior economist Casten Brzeski commented the " the harsh winter, the Greek crisis, they have all left the German labour market unperturbed." He put the improvement down to "active labour market policies," including the government's short work programme that lets companies cut workers' hours, a scheme that is to be extended until March 2012.

Trouble spots nonethless remained in formely communist areas of eastern Germany, and the highest unemployment, at 14.2 percent, recorded in Berlin. In the northeastern state of Mechlenburg-Western Pomerania, unemployment was also strong at 13.4 percent, though it had fallen from 14.6 in March 2009. Around 3.4 million people were looking for work in all, or 162,000 fewer than in the previous month, the labour agency said. On a seasonally-adjusted basis, the number declined by 68,000 to its lowest rate since December 2008.


I cannot believe that an economy as big as Germany's can fall this bad. I can only imagine what will be the end for our country. I found this article to be very interesting considering the world is in a tailspin right now. What will help us out? Find out next week