BERLIN, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Germany's Federal Labor Office announced Wednesday that more than 5 million people were unemployed, the Deutsche Welle reported.
Labor officials said that 537,00 more people were left unemployed in January making the grand total 5.037 million people without a job.
The increase in unemployment figures are mainly due to the recent social welfare reform 'Hartz IV' which re-categorizes welfare recipients as unemployed.
"The reasons for that are the winter season as well as the fact that job placement activities by our labor office agents were substantially lower last month as a result of sweeping organizational changes," said Labor Minister Wolfgang Clement on Tuesday in a preemptive response to Wednesday's numbers.
"In addition there is a statistical effect as thousands of former welfare recipients will be counted as unemployed for the first time in the wake of our reforms."
Experts believe that 350,000 Germans lost their jobs due to the winter and an estimated 300,000 people were receiving social welfare without being enrolled in the labor office.
News that Germany's unemployment reached 5 million may have repercussions for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in next year's general election, after promising to drive joblessness below 3.5 million.
