German unemployment rose to 10.5 per cent in July, the federal labour office said Wednesday, indicating that the country's labour market is failing to benefit from the recent recovery in Europe's biggest economy. Unemployment had been at 10.2 per cent in June, but the seasonally adjusted number of jobless jumped by 11,000 month on month to 4.39 million in July. This was more than double the 5,000 increase that analysts had originally forecast for the month. The Nuremberg-based labour office also revised up the June data by 2,000, after it had first reported last month that the June unemployment numbers dropped by 1,000. Unemployment levels have now risen for the sixth consecutive month, the office said. In seasonally unadjusted terms, the unemployment levels for July have never been higher since Germany's historic unification almost 14 years ago, jumping by 126,500 to 4.36 million as a jobless recovery takes hold. "All signs suggest the German economy is recovering. But this isn't yet having an effect on the labour market," said labour office chief Frank-Juergen Weise on releasing the data. One of the key factors in July's rise was the number of school leavers and graduating students who were flooding onto the labour market and registering as unemployed, the office said. --more 1452 Local Time 1152 GMT
