German jobless rate slips to 6.5 percent

However, it said that the seasonally adjusted jobless rate ticked up to 7 percent from 6.9 percent. In adjusted terms, the number of unemployed people unexpectedly increased by 10,000 — the first monthly increase since February 2010.

Germany’s economic growth has lost steam lately amid doubts over the global economy and the eurozone debt crisis, but the labor agency and economists said the increase in adjusted unemployment wasn’t — yet— something to be worried about.

It followed a very strong 22,000 decline in September, and labor agency chief Frank-Juergen Weise said that “the positive development on the labor market has, all in all, continued.’’

The figure “does not represent conclusive evidence as yet that the labor market cycle has turned in Germany,’’ said Timo Klein, an economist at IHS Global Insight.

“Nevertheless, the underlying trend is not as benign anymore as it had been between mid-2009 and mid-2011,’’ when seasonally adjusted unemployment declined by an average 23,000 per month, he added. “The economic slowdown observed since about the middle of the second quarter will increasingly have an impact on the labor market too.’’

German business confidence has fallen for the past four months but remains relatively high. The government is forecasting economic growth of 2.9 percent this year and recently cut its 2012 forecast to 1 percent from 1.8 percent.

German growth traditionally depends heavily on exports, which are sensitive to growing European and global economic turbulence and to slowing growth in major emerging markets.

A group representing Germany’s machinery industry, a key sector, said Wednesday that overall machinery orders were up a slim 1 percent year-on-year in September. Orders from abroad rose by 3 percent while those from inside Germany dropped 2 percent.