Reuters reports that the Labour Office said that German unemployment rose unexpectedly in April and companies put more staff on shorter working hours in subsidized job protection schemes, in a further pandemic-related setback for a fragile recovery in Europe’s largest economy.

Number of people out of work increased by 9,000 in seasonally adjusted terms to 2.760 million. Economists had expected a fall of 10,000.

The number of employees put on short-time work schemes increased to 3.27 million in February from 2.9 million in January, the office added.