German registered unemployment hit a post-war high of over five million in January, German Economy Minister Mr Wolfgang Clement confirmed today, and he admitted the real level of jobless was higher still.
"We will have over five million people unemployed today," Mr Clement told German television ahead of publication of official jobless data.
"On top, we have 1.4 to 1.5 million people in public work programmes. That means we have 6.5 million people with, in some cases, dramatic problems on the labour market...that's dramatically high and we have to reduce it," he added.
A source from the Federal Labour Office told reporters that the unadjusted German jobless total increased by 573,000 last month to 5.037 million.
Germany's unadjusted jobless total has more prominence in domestic media than adjusted figures that are more closely regarded in financial markets.
The Labour Office source said that on an adjusted basis, January unemployment increased by 227,000.
According to official historical figures obtained by Reuters news agency, the unadjusted figure of 5.037 million would put the country's unemployment at the highest level since 1933, when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party were in power.
No figures are available for the immediate postwar years of 1946-48. The politically sensitive figure of five million underlines how little progress has been made in solving Germany's biggest economic problem since Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was elected in 1998, pledging to halve unemployment from some four million.