Germany's unemployment will total 4.96 million at the end of January, a post-reunification record, Bild newspaper said today, referring to what it said were the first calculations of the Federal Labour Office.
The total, a non-seasonally unadjusted rise of 490,000 from December 2004, would be the highest level since German reunification in 1990.
The Federal Labour Office will report January figures on Wednesday. The January number is expected to be inflated by a change of statistics, including an extra 200,000 to 300,000 able-bodied people as jobless.