Employment in Germany's service sector rose further during the first quarter of this year, official figures show.

However, data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) has shown the number of people in work within the industry climbed year-on-year by 4.1 per cent.

According to the Wiesbaden-based agency, there was a 7.2 per cent jump in administrative and support service activities over the three months to March 2011 compared with the same period of 2010.

A three per cent annual rise in employment in companies concerned with transportation and storage was also recorded.

This was in addition to a climb of 2.3 per cent in the labor force of the information and communication field and a 2.2 per cent increase in professional, scientific and technical roles.

A recent report by Destatis indicated employment continued to grow in April 2011, with 40.68 million people in work in the country, more than 500,000 more than the same month of the previous year, while the jobless rate dipped by 16.1 per cent during the period.

Posted by Alex Donnell