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German unemployment fell and the jobless rate reached a record low as businesses and investors become more confident that Europe's largest economy will keep growing.
The number of people out of work fell a seasonally adjusted 14,000 to 2.87 million in November, the Federal Labor Agency in Nuremberg said on Friday. Economists forecast a decline of 1,000, according to the median of 34 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The adjusted jobless rate was 6.6 per cent, matching the revised number for the previous month and marking the lowest level in records going back more than two decades. Unemployment fell by 9,000 in western Germany and 5,000 in the eastern part of the country, Friday's report showed.
In a separate report, Italy's unemployment rate unexpectedly rose above 13 per cent in October, setting a record as businesses refrain from hiring amid the country's longest recession since World War II.
The unemployment rate rose to 13.2 per cent from a revised 12.9 per cent the previous month, the Rome-based national statistics office Istat said in a preliminary report on Friday. That's the highest since the quarterly series began in 1977. The median estimate of seven economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for an unemployment rate of 12.6 per cent in October.
