German unemployment falls below 6 percent in September

Germany's unemployment rate fell below six percent in September as the labor market in Europe's largest economy remained strong.

The Federal Labor Agency said Thursday that the number of jobless fell 76,682 in September from August, with a total of 2.61 million people out of work.

When adjusted for seasonal factors, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.1 percent.

IHS economist Timo Klein says employment has been helped by migration from troubled eurozone countries and Eastern Europe. The influx of asylum seekers in 2015, primarily from the Mideast "will strengthen this tendency during 2016-17 as more and more ... obtain right of residence."

He says increased immigration has changed Germany's long-term outlook and now "the working-age population and also labor supply will not decline any time soon."