The number of unemployed people in Germany rose slightly in December, though by much less than analysts had expected, and the 2023 rate was one of the lowest since German reunification, labour office figures showed on Wednesday.

The Federal Employment Agency said the number of people out of work increased by 5,000 in seasonally adjusted terms to 2.703 million. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the total to rise by 20,000.

"The labour market is still holding up well in terms of the extent of the burdens and uncertainties," said Andrea Nahles, chairwoman of the agency.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate grew slightly in December to 5.9%.

"Looking back at 2023, we can see that the weak economy has not left the labour market unscathed," Nahles said, while noting that the year had one of the lowest unemployment rates since reunification.

The number of unemployed people in Germany increased by 191,000 to 2.6 million in 2023 compared to the previous year.

Labour demand weakened noticeably in the second half of 2022 and this trend continued in 2023. Nevertheless, demand for labour remains high in a long-term comparison.

In 2023, there were on average 761,000 job openings, 84,000 fewer than a year ago, the agency said.

(Reporting by Bartosz Dabrowski, Maria Martinez and Holger Hansen, editing by Miranda Murray and Philippa Fletcher