GERMANY'S unemployment rate held steady at 7.6 percent in August as an improving economy bolstered the labor market, official figures showed yesterday.

The number of people registered as jobless in Europe's biggest economy edged down by some 4,000 from July in unadjusted terms to 3.188 million, the Federal Labor Agency said. Compared with a year earlier, 283,000 fewer people were out of work.

"The good economic development further improved the situation on the labor market," agency board member Heinrich Alt said. "The important indicators are developing in the right direction."

In seasonally adjusted terms, the jobless rate also was steady at 7.6 percent in August, although the number of unemployed dropped by a sharper 17,000 on the month? the latest in a string of declines, although a little short of economists' forecast of 20,000.

Export growth helped the German economy grow by 2.2 percent in the second quarter over the previous three-month period. Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, recently forecast that it will grow by about 3 percent in 2010, up sharply from a previous prediction of 1.9 percent.

Surveys have shown business and consumer confidence continuing to rise.

German unemployment was kept in check at the height of the economic crisis by a government-subsidized short-time work plan that allowed employers to cut workers to reduce production without slashing their work force.

The job market has stayed strong even as the program loses significance. The labor agency said that, in June, the latest month for which it has data? 406,000 people were in the short-work program.