German jobless rate ticks up to 5.8 pct but trend positive
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A lamp of a restaurant shines as trippers walk by in thick fog on top of the 880 m high Feldberg mountain near Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, Jan. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) (The Associated Press)
Germany's unemployment rate ticked up to 5.8 percent in December due to seasonal factors, but the number of people out of work was lower than a year earlier.
The Federal Labor Agency said Tuesday that the unadjusted jobless rate was up from 5.7 percent in November, with 2.568 million people registered as unemployed. That's 36,000 more than in November — but 113,000 fewer than in December 2015, when the jobless rate was 6.1 percent.
The unemployment rate in Europe's biggest economy regularly rises during the winter months when jobs in some sectors, like construction, are less available.