PARIS, Feb 13, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - France's official jobless rate was stable at 
7.5 percent for the final quarter of 2023 as statistics agency INSEE revised 
upwards by 0.1 percent its initial estimate on Tuesday.

The fourth quarter saw the number of jobless nationwide rise 29,000 over the 
third quarter to 2.3 million with the rate 0.4 percentage points higher than 
the 40-year-low it had reached at the end of 2022.

President Emmanuel Macron has set himself the target of full employment by 
the end of his second and final mandate in 2027 -- that statistically 
counting is 5.5 percent or below.

While progress still has to be made on that measure, French joblessness has 
dropped back considerably from a mid-2015 peak of 10.5 percent. 

Unemployment among the young, for those aged 15 to 24, remains stubbornly 
high, albeit dropping back 0.2 percent in the final quarter of last year to 
17.5 percent but that tally is 0.6 percent above the end of 2022.

The long-term jobless figure, for those out of work for a year or longer, 
stood at 1.8 percent, a minuscule increase on a year earlier.