France's unemployment rate rises more than expected to 7.4% in Q3

France's unemployment rate edged up faster than expected to 7.4% in the third quarter, according to official statistics published on Wednesday. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast 7.3% for the quarter, against an unrevised 7.2% level in the second quarter. That 7.4% level, which represents 2.3 million persons, is the highest since the second quarter of 2022.

France's unemployment rate edged up faster than expected to 7.4% in the third quarter, according to official statistics published on Wednesday. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast 7.3% for the quarter, against an unrevised 7.2% level in the second quarter.

That 7.4% level, which represents 2.3 million persons, is the highest since the second quarter of 2022. The INSEE statistics office said the youth unemployment rose by 0.7 percentage points in the third quarter to 17.6.

Long-term unemployment, meanwhile, remained unchanged at 1.8% of the active workforce, its lowest level since early 2009 -- excluding the second quarter of 2020 when data was skewed because of the first COVID lockdown that prevented people from registering as seeking employment. Tuesday, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) said its unemployment rate remained stable at 4.8% in September 2023.

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