The German labor market continues to defy the eurozone debt crisis, with the jobless total falling to its lowest level in five months in February, official data showed on Thursday.

On the face of it, headline unemployment rose this month, but that was primarily due to seasonal factors, monthly data compiled by the Federal Labor Office showed.

The raw or unadjusted jobless total rose by 18,013 to 3.156 million and the jobless rate was steady at 7.4 percent.