New year brings German unemployment record low

Unemployment in Europe's largest economy Germany hit a new record low in January, official data showed Tuesday, beating analyst expectations and filling out a picture of rude health painted by indicators. Just 5.9 percent of people were out of work in January, seasonally-adjusted figures from the Federal Labour Agency (BA) showed, a slight fall of 0.1 percentage points. Analysts surveyed by Factset had forecast unemployment would remain at the 6.0-percent level it first reached in October.