French President Francois Hollande said he was sticking to a target of cutting down unemployment by year-end, after fresh data showed that the number of jobless hit a new all-time high in April.
In a stark illustration of the challenge facing the Socialist president, the 3,264,400 registered job seekers in April marked two uninterrupted years of monthly rises and a 1.2 per cent increase on March.
Nearly 337,000 more people are out of work in mainland France than there were when Hollande was elected in May last year.
“Despite this data, despite what it means for many French people individually or for their family, I maintain the goal of reversing the unemployment trend by year-end,” Hollande told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In Germany, despite a jump in May due partly to bad weather, unemployment is close to a reunification low, while in France it stands at the worst level since records began in 1996, highlighting the growing divide between the euro zone’s two major economies.
To make things worse, young people have been the hardest hit by the April rise in unemployment in France, with a 2 per cent monthly increase in the number of job seekers under 25. Just over one in six job seekers in France is now under 25.
Hollande, whose poll ratings have fallen faster than for any modern French president as the economy slid into recession, is pushing alongside Germany and other euro zone countries to speed up an EU plan to devote 6 billion euros (HK$60.5 billion) for youth employment for next year-20.