German unemployment expectedly eases in October

BERLIN, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The number of people out of work in Germany unexpectedly declined slightly in October, labour office figures showed on Thursday, with the job market underscoring a somewhat more optimistic economic growth outlook by the government this month.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the jobless figure slipped by about a thousand to 2.973 million, while analysts and economists had predicted an increase by 8,000 in a Reuters poll.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate was unchanged from 6.3% a month earlier, in line with the forecast.

The economy ministry this month slightly raised its economic growth projection for this year to 0.2% from the stagnation foreseen previously, and forecast 1.3% growth next year.

Labour office head Andrea Nahles, however, cautioned that employment growth remained weak. "Overall, the autumn recovery has been sluggish so far," she said in a statement.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has promised to haul Germany out of the downturn with a sharp increase in infrastructure and defence spending, but those measures are taking longer than expected to translate into better conditions on the ground.