The number of unemployed people in Germany fell this month, keeping the jobless rate at a 14-year low, as companies hired staff to work off a backlog of orders.
The jobless rate, adjusted for seasonal swings, declined to 8.7 percent, the lowest since May 1993, from 8.8 percent last month, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency said today. The adjusted number of people out of work fell 40,000 to 3.66 million. Economists expected a drop of 30,000, according to the median of 37 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey.
German companies have invested in plant and equipment and expanded their workforce to meet Asian and European demand for machines and cars made in Europe's largest economy. The BGA wholesale and export federation forecasts that foreign orders may grow by a tenth this year to about 985 billion euros ($1.42 billion) and will exceed 1 trillion euros in 2008 even as German growth slows.
``Germany's economy is moving in a very positive direction and that's going to last several years,'' said Thomas Bauer, chief executive officer of Bauer AG, a maker of construction- industry machines that employs 5,500. ``The U.S. housing crisis adds some uncertainty. It will slow global growth, but not stop it.''
Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen AG said on Oct. 15 that it is on course to set a new sales record of over 3.5 million Volkswagen-brand vehicles this year. ThyssenKrupp AG, Germany's largest steelmaker, won a contract on Oct. 22 worth a ``triple- digit million-euro sum'' to build a plant in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=a4JjItgLViOQ&refer=economy
To say in the words of former Ex-defense-secretary D. Rumsfeld : Seems "Old Europe" is winning some steam...
The jobless rate, adjusted for seasonal swings, declined to 8.7 percent, the lowest since May 1993, from 8.8 percent last month, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency said today. The adjusted number of people out of work fell 40,000 to 3.66 million. Economists expected a drop of 30,000, according to the median of 37 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey.
German companies have invested in plant and equipment and expanded their workforce to meet Asian and European demand for machines and cars made in Europe's largest economy. The BGA wholesale and export federation forecasts that foreign orders may grow by a tenth this year to about 985 billion euros ($1.42 billion) and will exceed 1 trillion euros in 2008 even as German growth slows.
``Germany's economy is moving in a very positive direction and that's going to last several years,'' said Thomas Bauer, chief executive officer of Bauer AG, a maker of construction- industry machines that employs 5,500. ``The U.S. housing crisis adds some uncertainty. It will slow global growth, but not stop it.''
Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen AG said on Oct. 15 that it is on course to set a new sales record of over 3.5 million Volkswagen-brand vehicles this year. ThyssenKrupp AG, Germany's largest steelmaker, won a contract on Oct. 22 worth a ``triple- digit million-euro sum'' to build a plant in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=a4JjItgLViOQ&refer=economy
To say in the words of former Ex-defense-secretary D. Rumsfeld : Seems "Old Europe" is winning some steam...
