German jobless figures rise

Germany’s unemployment rate rose in November to the highest since December 1998 as business confidence fell to its lowest in more than a year and companies including BASF announced job cuts.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 10.8% from 10.7% in October as the number of jobseekers climbed by 7,000 to 4.46 million, the Federal Labour Agency said yesterday in Nuremberg.

The unemployment rate in Germany, whose economy makes up a third of the euro region, is now higher than when Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was elected in September 1998.

Companies are cutting jobs and shifting production to cheaper countries such as neighbouring Poland and the Czech Republic.