Berlin, February 6 (RHC)-- Germany’s unemployment rate has hit 7.3 percent in the first month of 2014 with more than 3 million people being jobless at a time of continued economic hardship.

According to an official report by Germany’s Federal Labor Office, the unemployment rate of Europe’s biggest economy rose from 6.7 percent in December last year to 7.3 percent in January.

The report blamed the spike in the number of the jobless on seasonal factors, with about a quarter million more people out of work compared with December.  It also put the overall number of the jobless at 3.14 million people.

The jobless rate regularly rises during the winter months when certain jobs, like construction-related ones, are less available, the report said.

Germany boasts of being Europe’s number-one economy, yet the number of the impoverished Germans has been steadily mounting in the course of the global economic downturn.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party is constantly pressured to develop measures to fight poverty and to address the growing problem of the working poor in particular.