German unemployment rose for the first time in almost three years in December as the labor market caught up with an economy that shrank during most of 2008.

The number of people out of work, adjusted for seasonal swings, rose 18,000 last month, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency said today. Economists expected an increase of 10,000, according to the median of 30 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The adjusted unemployment rate remained at 7.6 percent.