German unemployment was steady at historic low levels in December as the recovery in Europe's biggest economy remains on track, data showed on Tuesday.

Unemployment stands at the lowest level since west and east Germany reunited in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall the previous year, the Federal Labour Office said in a statement.

The German unemployment rate -- which measures the jobless total against the working population as a whole -- stood at 6.3 percent in December, unchanged from November.

In numerical terms, the number of people registered as unemployed in Germany declined by a seasonally-adjusted 14,000 to 2.757 million, the Federal Labour Office said.  

That was more than expected, as analysts had been pencilling in a decline of around 7,000.

By contrast, in raw, or unadjusted, terms, the jobless total increased by 48,000 to 2.681 million and the unemployment rate inched up to 6.1 percent in December from 6.0 percent in November, the office noted.

But the increase was solely due to seasonal factors, the office said.

"With real growth of 0.3 percent in third quarter, the German economy continued along its moderate upward trend observed in the first half of the year," the labour office said.

"The favourable development also continued on the labour market."

Taking the year as a whole, the German jobless rate stood at 6.4 percent and the jobless total at 2.795 million, the office added.