German unemployment rises for 9th month in December

BERLIN Jan 3 (Reuters) - German unemployment rose for the ninth month running in December in seasonally adjusted terms but gained much less than expected and remained close to a post-reunification low, data showed on Thursday.

Labour Office data showed the number of people out of a job rose by 3,000 to 2.942 million. The consensus forecast in a Reuters poll of 23 economists had been for unemployment to rise by 10,000.. The unemployment rate held steady at 6.9 percent.