Employment Up in Germany for November 2015

Official figures have revealed that the employment rate in Germany increased year on year for November in 2015.

In total there were 424,000 more jobs in created in Europe’s most influential economy, a rise of 1% compared to the same month in the previous year.

It is estimated that there was 1.9 million unemployed for November, which would be 166,000 fewer than the same time in 2014.

This is the first time since the fall of the Berlin wall, and the subsequent reunification of Germany, that unemployment has seeped below the two million figure.

The data was a slight improvement on the figures for October last year, where the employment growth rate was 0.9%.

Although the provisional results disclosed that there were 33,000 more vacancies, a slender 0.1% increase month on month from October to November.

This was slightly lower that the average of monthly comparisons of employment figures over the past five years, which has seen growth of 34,000 jobs.

Employment figures have been recalculated for the whole of last year, which revealed that there had been a rise of 0.8% in job creation.

UK Manufacturing Sector Slows for the end of 2015

According to the latest Markit manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI),  the sector slipped in December, as the survey score moved down to 51.5, from just over 55 in October.

 The index works on the premise that a score of 50 means that there has been no monthly change in the sector.

The latest figures for December still represent an increase in productivity, and the manufacturing sector has now grown for the 33 month running from Markit figures.

Growth has been underpinned by increased business from both export and domestic clients. Although the consumer goods sector has been attributed with being the main driver of production.

This is despite the easing of order growth in the final few months of last year, intermediate and investment goods producers have also seen decelerations in their markets.

New export figures have now grown for the fourth consecutive month in December, although in keeping with most of the trends of the latest survey, exports have eased since they peaked in the autumn, with September producing better results.

Demand for UK manufacturing products has increased in continental Europe, the USA, China, Scandinavia, Turkey, Singapore and the UAE.

Employment in the sector rose, but the job expansion rate in December was only a mild one.

Over the past 32 months, there have only been two months when employment has not grown.

The main avenues of employment growth were across the consumer, intermediate and investment goods sectors, which were based at SMEs and large-sized companies. 

There was also positive news on costs, as companies continued to benefit from lower oil prices

Exchange rate factors were also mentioned as a reason for the reduction in input prices, even though the pound has fallen against the euro and the US dollar throughout December.

Mixed Fortunes for UK Pound

This morning GMT the pound rose against the euro, and is now buying EUR1.36, and has risen from EUR 1.348, since the opening of trading for the year yesterday.

Although the pound has fallen against the US dollar, and is now buying $1.46.

Meanwhile, the euro has also weakened to the US dollar, and is now trading at $1.07, from just below  $1.085.