France's unemployment rate hovers just above 7pc
Business
The data will be a boost for President Emmanuel Macron and his government
PARIS (Reuters) - France’s unemployment rate stood at a revised 7.1% in the last quarter of 2022, and held steady there in the first three months of this year, its lowest level since 1982 barring an anomaly during the Covid crisis, official data showed on Wednesday.
The data will be a boost for President Emmanuel Macron and his government as it grapples with high inflation and strives to turn the page on pension reforms that have unleashed months of strikes and sometimes violent street protests.
The INSEE statistics office said youth unemployment fell 0.2 percentage points in the first quarter to 16.6%, more than 5 percentage points below pre-Covid levels.
Long-term unemployment meanwhile stood at 1.8% of the active workforce, its lowest level since early 2009 - again excluding the second quarter of 2020 when inflation data was skewed because a Covid lockdown prevented people from registering as seeking employment.
Macron inherited a jobless rate of 9.5% when he entered the Elysee Palace in 2017 and made lowering the number below 7% a central aim of reforms to loosen labour market rules and boost vocational training.
