The jobless rate fell from 6.6 percent in November. It is now at its lowest level since German reunification in 1990. The rate had been forecast to hold steady.
The number of people out of work fell by 27,000 on a sesasonally-adjusted basis to 2.841 million, the data showed. That was a sharper decrease than the consensus forecast in a Reuters poll, which had been for a drop of 6,000, and was steeper than even the lowest estimate for a decrease of 15,000.