The German federal employment agency reported on Wednesday from its headquarters in Nuremberg that 88,000 fewer people were registered as unemployed in September than in August. But there are still 2.708 million registered unemployed, with the official jobless rate at 6.2 percent, the agency said.

The drop in unemployment compared to August was expected, since there is normally a seasonal adjustment after the summer, with more jobs on offer in September and students taking up apprenticeships. For that reason, a better assessment of jobless rates is by comparison with the figures from September a year ago.

That comparison also has Germany's labor force on a positive trend. Compared to September 2014, in September this year there were about 100,000 fewer registered unemployed.

"On the whole, the positive trend in the labor market is continuing," said Frank-Jürgen Weise, the head of the employment agency.

In July, agency statistics showed 30.73 million people were regularly employed and paying into Germany's obligatory social insurance schemes. That number was 608,000 greater than during the same month a year earlier.

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