The number of people looking for work in Germany rose in August

The number of people looking for work in Germany rose in August, as the modest economic recovery was not enough to create any new jobs in the eurozone's biggest economy, official data showed on Thursday. The Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, calculated that the number of people out of work last month rose by 24,000 to 4.414 million, equivalent to 10.6 percent of the working population. Unemployment in Germany has been increasing steadily since the beginning of the year, with a total 145,000 more people on the dole in August than in January. The Bundesbank data are seasonally adjusted. Raw or unadjusted data published separately the Federal Labor Agency in Nuremberg painted a slightly more positive picture, with the unadjusted jobless total falling by 13,400 to 4.347 million. But that decline was solely a result of seasonal factors and not any fundamental improvement in the labor market -- unemployment usually decreases at this time of year at the start of the school term and as factories re-open after the summer holidays. In regional terms, the seasonally adjusted jobless total in western Germany increased by 18,000 to 2.809 million, equivalent to a jobless rate of 8.6 percent.