© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A woman wearing a protective mask walks past the skyline of the financial district during sunset as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2020, REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

BERLIN (Reuters) – German unemployment fell further in June as more workers joined the labour market in light of a strong recovery in Europe’s largest economy helped by falling coronavirus infections and an easing of containment measures, data showed on Wednesday.

The better-than-expected job market data increases the chances of a consumer-driven recovery over the summer months, with households ready to splash out after months of limited possibilities to spend due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The Labour Office said the number of people out of work fell by 38,000 in seasonally adjusted terms to 2.691 million. A Reuters poll had forecast a fall of 20,000.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate stood at 5.9%.

In a further positive sign, the number of employees put on reduced working hours in job protection schemes, also known as Kurzarbeit, fell sharply in June, preliminary figures showed.

“Companies are scaling back short-time work and are looking for new staff again,” Labour Office head Detlef Scheele said, adding that both unemployment and underemployment continued to fall sharply.