Unemployment in Germany fell last month by two-hundred-and-twenty-thousand to four-point-two-million, or just under eleven per cent of the workforce.

When seasonal factors are taken into acount, the fall is sixty-thousand.

It is the first time in nearly three years that the unemployment figure for the whole of Germany is lower than it was a year ago.

The labour office said there had been a turn-around in the labour markets in western Germany and there was now light at the end of the tunnel in eastern Germany -- mostly due to job creation schemes.

The high level of unemployment is a major issue in the campaign for the general election in September.