The Employment Agency (BA) announced that the number of unemployed in Germany fell by 58,000 at the end of May.
The figure fell from 2.95 million below the important threshold of three million, the German News Agency (DPA) reported.
The number of unemployed is still 31,000 higher than 12 months earlier, BA announced.
The unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point compared to the previous month, to 6.3 percent.
Compared to the previous year, it increased by 0.1 percentage point.
The figure of three million unemployed is an important indicator in the public debate about the health of the domestic economy.
The fall below that threshold is small and late.
“Despite falling unemployment, the economy’s spring awakening has failed this year,” BA chief executive Andrea Nales said.
In any case, such figures do not herald a turnaround.
Although the unemployment rate increased from the previous year, the number of open but unfilled jobs increased by 8,000 to 643,000.
This indicates a balanced, weak demand for labor force, writes Fenix magazine.
In May, 1.073 million people received unemployment benefits, which is 113,000 more than 12 months earlier.
At the same time, the number of people receiving social assistance decreased by 103,000 to 3.83 million, reports Bankar.me.
About 199,000 young people were looking for a job on the labor market for internships, although the number of offered places increased slightly from May 2025 to 382,000. The gap remains large because young people are often unable to accept practices that are far from their place of residence.
