BERLIN, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Germany's labor market continues to weaken as the economy is stagnating. The country's unemployment rate climbed slightly to 5.8 percent in August, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) said on Thursday.
The number of jobless people in Europe's largest economy rose by 79,000 month-on-month to just under 2.7 million in August. The figure was 148,000 higher than a year ago, according to BA.
"The summer break and the weak economy are leaving their mark on the labor market," BA chief Andrea Nahles said in a statement. Even adjusted for seasonal factors, the number of unemployed people in Germany increased by 18,000 compared to the previous month.
After Germany's total workforce had steadily climbed to a record high of 45.6 million employees in 2022, employment growth has stagnated in recent months, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).
The German Economic Institute (IW) now expects employment to decline slightly in the second half of the year. "The jobless are facing increasing difficulties in finding new employment," the institute warned on Tuesday, adding that companies are "more reluctant to hire."
Like other leading economic research institutes, the IW has just lowered its annual forecast and now expects Germany's gross domestic product (GDP) to decline by up to 0.5 percent in 2023.
