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France's jobless reaches 3m
Source: Agencies |
September 27, 2012, Thursday
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THE number of unemployed in France topped the 3 million mark in August for the first time since 1999, its labor minister said yesterday, adding to President Francois Hollande's woes as he seeks to revive a stalled economy and his tumbling poll ratings.
Michel Sapin said August's jobless data, due out later yesterday, would show a 16th consecutive monthly rise and blamed former President Nicolas Sarkozy for increasing insecurity in the jobs market.
"It's bad. It's clearly bad," Sapin told France 2 television. "But this is the result of a policy: in reality, these 3 million unemployed were here when we arrived in office."
Socialist Hollande won power in May with a pledge to revive the eurozone's second largest economy and tackle rising unemployment while respecting France's European Union public deficit target of 3 percent of gross domestic product next year.
But his plans have been waylaid by thousands of layoffs by major companies including Peugeot, Sanofi, Air France-KLM and Carrefour.
"We haven't seen the peak of the crisis yet from a social point of view," Mathieu Plane, economist at the French Economic Observatory (OFCE), said. "There are almost one million more unemployed people compared with early 2008 and we can't yet say that we have reached the peak."
France's 2-trillion-euro (US$2.6 trillion) economy has posted three consecutive quarters of zero growth. Weak PMI data for September suggested it would contract in the third quarter as tax rises, unemployment and flagging exports weigh.
With voters frustrated by unemployment already running at a 10-year high, Hollande's approval ratings hit a new low of 43 percent, according to an Ifop poll on Sunday.
Michel Sapin said August's jobless data, due out later yesterday, would show a 16th consecutive monthly rise and blamed former President Nicolas Sarkozy for increasing insecurity in the jobs market.
"It's bad. It's clearly bad," Sapin told France 2 television. "But this is the result of a policy: in reality, these 3 million unemployed were here when we arrived in office."
Socialist Hollande won power in May with a pledge to revive the eurozone's second largest economy and tackle rising unemployment while respecting France's European Union public deficit target of 3 percent of gross domestic product next year.
But his plans have been waylaid by thousands of layoffs by major companies including Peugeot, Sanofi, Air France-KLM and Carrefour.
"We haven't seen the peak of the crisis yet from a social point of view," Mathieu Plane, economist at the French Economic Observatory (OFCE), said. "There are almost one million more unemployed people compared with early 2008 and we can't yet say that we have reached the peak."
France's 2-trillion-euro (US$2.6 trillion) economy has posted three consecutive quarters of zero growth. Weak PMI data for September suggested it would contract in the third quarter as tax rises, unemployment and flagging exports weigh.
With voters frustrated by unemployment already running at a 10-year high, Hollande's approval ratings hit a new low of 43 percent, according to an Ifop poll on Sunday.
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