German unemployment remains at 7.4 percent in February; job market seen as robust

BERLIN – The Federal Labor Agency says Germany's unemployment rate held steady at 7.4 percent in February and that the job market remains "robust."

The agency says Thursday that 18,000 more people were without a job in February over the previous month — largely due to winter seasonal factors. A total of 3.156 million people were registered as jobless.

When seasonally adjusted, the number of unemployed was down 3,000 people and the unemployment rate was 6.9 percent — also unchanged over January.

Agency head Frank-Juergen Weise says the German labor market "seems to be coping with the weak economic growth in recent months and appears to be overall robust."