French unemployment rate jumps in Q3, raises doubt over President Hollande’s second term

The rate of unemployment in France jumped during the third quarter of this year, raising further doubts over President Francois Hollande's second term in the government.

The ILO jobless rate for metropolitan France and overseas departments rose to 10 percent in the third quarter from 9.9 percent in the second quarter, data released by the statistical office Insee showed Thursday. The rate was expected to remain unchanged at 9.9 percent.

Further, in metropolitan France, the number of unemployed increased by 31,000 to 2.8 million. Consequently, the jobless rate climbed by 0.1 percentage points to 9.7 percent. The jobless rate among youth aged 15-24 in metropolitan France rose to 25.1 percent from 23.9 percent a quarter ago.

The employment rate of the population came in at 64.6 percent in the third quarter compared to 64.7 percent in the previous quarter.

On the election front, Hollande has assured of not contesting for a re-election if he fails to bring about any recovery in the labor market. Surveys show the Socialist leader is already deeply unpopular and stands little chance of election if he opts to run.

However, the President has put in enough efforts to revive this ailing sector of the economy, pouring billions of euros into training schemes and tax cuts in the last four years. The data from Insee, however, showed that the unemployment rate of under 25-year-olds rose to 25.7 percent from 24.4 percent.

French labor minister Myriam El Khomri said the jobs trend remains favorable compared to a year ago when the unemployment rate peaked at 10.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the EUR/USD remained bullish at 1.0727, up 0.35 percent and slightly recovering from yesterday’s lows, while at 9:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Euro Strength Index stood neutral at 19.82 (lower than the 75 benchmark for bullish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex