Despite the financial downturn, unemployment in Germany continues to fall.

In October the total number of people out of work dropped below three million for the first time in sixteen years.

However, the Berlin government has conceded that trend is likely to reverse as Europe’s biggest economy is slipping into a recession.

The headline figure, which in Germany is not adjusted for seasonal factors, was 2.997 million. A year ago it was 3.6 million.

The unemployment rate is 7.2 percent of the working population, down from 8.2 percent in October last year.

As recently as 2005, there were five million people without jobs in Germany.

Among the sectors hardest hit by the crisis is the car industry, which employs roughly one in five German workers.

A top Mercedes-Benz executive recently talked about a “full-blown sales crisis” and said job cuts could follow.

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