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German May jobless drops significantly: SPD source

BERLIN - The number of Germans out of work in May fell significantly in both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted terms, an official with the Social Democrats (SPD) said on Tuesday.

“Unemployment in May improved significantly, also on a seasonally adjusted basis,” the SPD official said on condition of anonymity. The SPD are partners in the ruling coalition.

The consensus forecast of economists polled by Reuters is for the jobless total to fall by 20,000 in May in seasonally adjusted terms.

In April, 4.69 million people were registered unemployed on a seasonally adjusted basis while the reading stood at 4.79 million on unadjusted terms. The adjusted rate stood at 11.3 per cent after the number dropped by 40,000 in April from March.

The Federal Labour Office is due to release the May jobless figures on Wednesday at around 0800 GMT.

A fall in the number of people registering for unemployment is usual in spring as firms add workers to their payrolls for outdoor labour.

Europe’s largest economy has suffered from stubbornly high unemployment and sluggish growth over the past years.

Economists expect the number of jobless people to ease this year, mostly on the back of the country’s export driven recovery. But few expect the significant turnaround in the labour market that many say is needed to boost spending and spark a broad-based economic recovery.