BERLIN, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The prospects for unemployed people to find a job in Germany have fallen to a record low as the country's labor market remains sluggish, Andrea Nahles, head of the Federal Employment Agency (BA), said in an interview published on Friday.
According to the web.de news portal, Nahles said the labor market has shown little momentum for months, citing an indicator measuring the possibility of the unemployed finding new jobs. "The figure usually stands at around seven, but it is currently at 5.7, the lowest level ever recorded," she said.
Prospects are particularly weak for new labor market entrants. "We have placed fewer young people into apprenticeships than at any time in the past 25 years," Nahles said.
She added that no sector can now consider itself immune from job losses, although well-qualified workers continue to have comparatively better chances in the labor market.
BA data showed that registered vacancies, a key measure of labor demand, continued to decline in November, falling by 44,000 year on year to 624,000. The number of unemployed people stood at about 2.89 million in November, 111,000 higher than a year earlier, while the jobless rate rose by 0.2 percentage point.
