France’s unemployment rate hit a 14-year high in the first quarter of 2013, casting fresh doubt on President Francois Hollande’s goal of reversing the rising jobless trend by year-end.
The jobless rate of 10.8 percent, published by the INSEE statistics agency on Thursday, was the highest on record since the first quarter of 1999.
The euro zone’s second-largest economy fell into a shallow recession in the first quarter and the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund both forecast that it will slightly contract overall in 2013.
All of the economists polled by Reuters said they believed the government would miss its target of reversing unemployment by year-end, a goal Hollande set a few months after winning power in May 2012 and says he will stand by despite widespread scepticism.
“It is hard to see how the jobless trend can come down before the end of the year,” said ING economist Julien Manceaux, pointing at France’s bleak economic outlook and lagging competitiveness.
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor
via French jobless rate hits 14-year high, government target in doubt | Reuters.
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