In February, the number of unemployed people increased to 4.41 million from 4.17 million in the previous month. A year earlier, the figure was 4.23 million.
990 thousand people were officially registered as unemployed, up from 920 thousand in January and 950 thousand a year earlier.
While nominal wages rose 5.2 percent year-on-year (5.3 percent in January), real pay fell 9.9 percent after dropping by 8.4 percent in the previous month. Real disposable income shrank 0.6 percent (-1.0 percent in January).