The number of jobless people in France hit a 12-year high in November in the latest sign the French job market is deteriorating ahead of the April-May presidential election.
PARIS, Dec 26 – The number of jobless people in France hit a 12-year high in November in the latest sign the French job market is deteriorating ahead of the April-May presidential election.
Labour ministry data issued on Monday showed that the number of registered jobseekers in mainland France rose by 29,900 in November to reach 2.85 million, up 1.1 per cent on the month and 5.2 per cent on the year.
The increase, which brought the jobless total to its highest level since November 1999, deals a fresh blow to Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, as he struggles to convince voters he is the best person to drive the euro zone’s second-biggest economy as he seeks a second mandate.
The monthly labour ministry data are the most frequently reported domestic jobs indicator in France, although they are not prepared according to widely used International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards and are not expressed as an unemployment rate – the number of job seekers compared to the total workforce.
According to ILO-compliant data from the INSEE national statistics office issued on December 1, the unemployment rate in mainland France rose in the third quarter to 9.3 per cent from 9.1 per cent in the previous three months.
After the financial crisis, the rate peaked at a 10-year high of 9.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009.
