France Unemployment Rate

The unemployment rate in France edged down to 7.3% in the fourth quarter of 2024, from 7.4% in the previous period, below market expectations of 7.5%. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 63 thousand over the prior period to reach 2.3 million. Among age groups, the unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24 fell by 0.8 percentage points to 19% and it fell by 0.1 per centage points to 6.5% for those aged 25 to 49. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for those aged 50 and over increased by 0.1 percentage points to 4.8%. By gender, the jobless rate for women was almost stable at 7.1% while it fell by 0.2 percentage points to 7.5% for men. The activity rate reached 74.4%, 0.3 percentage points lower than in the previous quarter.