Germany has been much plagued by a widespread skills shortage and despite a decline in job vacancies seen this month, workers in the energy and electronic sectors as well as in the staffing industry remained high in demand, the federal labour agency reports.

The number of registered job vacancies in Germany fell year-on-year by 41,000 to a total of 451,000 in November. But the labour agency said that demand for labour still remains high, particularly in the temporary staffing industry. One in three open vacancies were reported by the staffing sector this month.

A number of sectors posted increased demand for labour, including healthcare, auto-manufacturing, and sales.

Other data published today by the agency shows that German unemployment rose for the eighth month in a row in November. The number of people without a job increased 5,000 to 2.94 million (seasonally adjusted). However, the unemployment rate, which seasonally adjusted stood at 6.9%, is still one of the lowest in Europe.

This comes after the OECD this week revised its economic growth forecast for Germany down to only 0.5% in 2013. The German government is rather more optimistic, expecting GDP growth of 1.0% next year.

“It is doubtful whether private consumption can really take over the baton as the main growth driver for the German economy,” said Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING Group in Brussels. “German unemployment looks set to increase further. This increase, however, should only be very mild, mainly located in the export industry.”