PARIS (Reuters) – Unemployment in France dipped slightly in the third quarter to equal the lowest rate in 14 years reached earlier this year, official data showed on Tuesday, a figure that should be welcomed by the government in the midst of a soaring inflation.
The unemployment rate slipped to 7.3% from 7.4% in the previous three months, the INSEE statistics agency said. That figure has stayed in the 7.3%-7.4% range since the last three months of 2021.
A Reuters poll of 12 economists had on average expected a 7.3% unemployment rate.
At this level, it is the lowest unemployment rate since the second quarter of 2008, with the exception of an anomalous unrepresentative drop at the start of the pandemic because jobseekers could not look for work during a nationwide lockdown.
(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Dominique Vidalon)
