Mubasher: The number of Germans out of work saw a marginal decline, in June, compared with the previous month, whereas the amount of underemployment increased, foreboding a weakness in Europe’s biggest economy.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the total number of unemployed individuals in Germany went down by 1,000 to 2.281 million in June, the Federal Labour Agency (BA) said on Monday.

In absolute terms, the number of people unemployed fell by 20,000 in June, to 2.2 million.

The jobless rate held firm at 5% during June, unchanged from the previous month when it rose by 0.1% from a historic low since German reunification in 1990.

“The influence of a slackening economic environment is showed most clearly in underemployment, which also reflects changes to labour market policy and short-term inability to work,” the BA said in a statement.

Seasonally adjusted underemployment rose by 6,000 to 3.172 million in June.

By 1:33 pm GMT, the EUR/USD pair fell by 0.28% to $1.1341.