Nominal unemployment in German in July climbed to 2.518 million as about 45,000 people lost their jobs, causing the jobless rate to edge up a notch to 5.6 percent.

The German Federal Labor Agency (BA), which released the latest figures on Tuesday, attributed the rise in unemployment to a seasonal hiring lull typical for the summer months.

"In seasonally adjusted figures, we saw a further decline. Employment continued to rise, and the demand for labor remained strong on a higher level," BA chief Detlef Scheele told reporters in Nuremberg.

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In July, hiring is traditionally slow because of companies breaking off for the summer holidays. In addition, many young people leaving school or vocational training in June register as unemployed before taking on jobs or training in the coming months.

In figures adjusted for such seasonal variations, German unemployment actually fell by 9,000 in July. Compared with the same months a year ago, joblessness even dropped by 143,000 to its lowest July level since German reunification in 1990.

According to BA figures, German job vacancies rose to 750,000 - about 76,000 more than in the same month a year earlier.

uhe/tr (Reuters, dpa, AFP)