French Q3 unemployment rate slightly up

Source: Xinhua | 2019-11-15

France's unemployment rate stood at 8.6 percent in the third quarter of 2019, up by 0.1 percentage point from a quarter earlier, national statistics bureau Insee data showed on Thursday.
Compared to the second quarter when jobless rate dropped to its lowest since 2008, the number of jobseekers increased by 10,000 to 2.5 million people in France, excluding overseas department of Mayotte in the July-September period.
On a yearly basis, however, the jobless rate fell by 0.5 percentage points, Insee said.
"It has never been said that the battle for employment was a long calm river. Thirty years of mass unemployment cannot be reduced in one day," Labor Minister Muriel Penicaud said.
"We must keep a long-term prospect," she told local broadcaster Europe 1.
Elected in May 2017 on a ticket to reform the economy and create more jobs, French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to cut unemployment rate to 7 percent by 2022.
Macron enacted legislation to lessen rigid labor rules by offering more flexibility to companies to hire and fire and more freedom in terms of pay and working condition.