Berlin - Corporate Germany stepped up moves Wednesday to place employees on short-term working contracts as the global recession tightens its grip on Europe's biggest economy.

While giant German carmaker Daimler AG reduced the hours of another 18,000 workers, chipmaker Infineon AG said it was placing a further 4,000 workers on shorter hours at its plant in Munich and in other parts of the country.

Since the start of the year, Infineon has already placed workers on shortened working hours at its operations in the German towns of Dresden, Warstein and Regenburg following a dramatic plunge in global demand for chips.

Germany unemployment rose for the fourth consecutive month in February with the seasonally adjusted jobless rate edging up to 7.9 per cent from 7.8 per cent in January.

However, the number of companies placing employees on reduced working hours had helped to limit the jump in unemployment, the labour office said. In January alone
201,000 employees were on reduced working hours (dpa)