German jobless rate ticks down to 6.5 percent in March

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's unemployment rate ticked down to 6.5 percent in March, a post-winter decline that's typical for the month.

The Federal Labor Agency said Thursday that the unadjusted unemployment rate in Europe's biggest economy was down from 6.6 percent the previous month, with 2.845 million people registered as unemployed. That was 66,000 lower than in February and down 87,000 compared with a year ago.

There was no change in the seasonally adjusted jobless rate, which stood at 6.2 percent for the third consecutive month.