BERLIN, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- German unemployment continued to fall in December, according to data released Tuesday.

    The number of people out of work fell about 3,000 in December from the previous month to about 3.42 million after seasonal adjustment, said the Nuremberg-based German Federal Labor Agency.

    It was the sixth consecutive decline in the jobless rate. The seasonally adjusted December unemployment rate was unchanged from the previous month at 8.1 percent.

    "Although the German economy suffered from deep recession last year, the labor market in 2009 remained OK," said Frank-Juergen Weise, chief of German Federal Labor Agency.

    The continuing fall of German unemployment came from the economic recovery that Germany had experienced since the second quarter of 2009. The German economy expanded 0.3 percent and 0.7 percent in the second and third quarters of 2009, respectively.

    The government's subsidized short-term work contracts also played an important role in helping cut the unemployment rate, according to local media reports.

    The German government, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, has extended its short-term work program from last November till the end of 2010.