The Nuremberg-based German Labor Agency (BA) reported Tuesday the number of jobless people in Europe's biggest economy fell by 94,000 in September month-on-month, or 41,000 people when compared with the level reached in the same month a year earlier.

The agency said the unadjusted figures also meant a drop in the national unemployment rate from 6.7 to 6.5 percent.

But BA chief Frank-Jürgen Weise hastened to put the figures in perspective. "If you adjust developments for seasonal effects, unemployment actually rose in September," he said in a statement.

No cause for alarm

In fact, adjusted calculations saw the number of jobless people rising by 12,000 to a total of 2.918 people and hence still below the psychologically important threshold of three million.

But while the adjusted figures for September didn't quite live up to analysts' expectations, the German labor market still appears in a robust state overall, boasting employment levels not seen in most other fellow eurozone economies.

The European statistics office reported Tuesday unemployment in the 18-member euro area remained stuck at 11.5 percent in August, defying efforts to reduce it tangibly.

In the wider 28-country European Union, 24.6 million people were estimated to be out of work in August, resulting in a jobless rate of 10.1 percent, down slightly from the 10.2 percent recorded a month earlier.

hg/ng (dpa, Reuters)