Berlin  - Anybody wanting to see what impact the economic crisis has had on German unemployment won't have to wait until the figures are released at the end of the month, with an economic research group unveiling Wednesday a new method for calculating the numbers out of work.

By analysing Google internet job searches, the Berlin-based Institute for German Economic Research (DIW) has been able to work out what the data is going to look like.

"To our surprise we can calculate the development unemployment with high precision," said DIW chief Klaus Zimmerman.

The DIW said it had discovered that virtually very job search was over the internet.

AS a result, the institute uses information entered in the Google search engine to work out the the monthly unemployment rate in Europe's biggest economy.

The result is that the DIW expects the modest improvement in May seasonally unadjusted German unemployment to continue in June despite the current tough economic environment.(dpa)