German unemployment rises in November amid economic downturn

By Maria Martinez

(Reuters) -The number of unemployed people in Germany rose in line with analysts' expectations in November, Labour Office figures showed on Thursday.

The Federal Labour Office said the number of people out ofwork increased by 22,000 in seasonally adjusted terms to 2.702 million. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the total to rise by 22,000.

"The economic downturn continues to leave its mark on the German labour market," said Andrea Nahles, chairwoman of the Federal Employment Agency.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate grew to 5.9% from 5.8% in October.

In November, there were 733,000 job openings, 90,000 fewer than a year ago, the Federal Labour Office said.

"Employment is only growing slightly and labour demand is still declining," Nahles said.

The willingness among companies in Germany to hire new staff decreased slightly in November, the Ifo employment barometer showed on Tuesday.

"With a solid foundation for recovery still not in sight, companies are putting off hiring new staff," said Klaus Wohlrabe, head of surveys at Ifo.

(Reporting by Maria Martinez, Ozan Ergenay and Holger Hansen, editing by Rachel More, Linda Pasquini and Bernadette Baum)