Jobless claims in France hit 30-month high in October: ministry

The number of registered jobseekers in France increased by 1.2 percent in October compared to a 0.7 percent decline reported a month earlier, putting pressure on President Francois Hollande who pledged to create jobs and promote growth, official data showed on Thursday.

France received jobless claims from more than 3.589 million people in October, 42,000 more than that of September and the highest since April 2013, figures released by the labor ministry show.

On a yearly basis, the monthly unemployment rate rose by 3.7 percent.

"The recovery of our economy is engaged but it is still insufficient to lead to a sustainable decrease in the number of jobseekers given the growing workforce," said Labor Minister Myriam El Khomri.

"(But), we'll continue to back efforts to (expand) growth while strengthening support for jobseekers," she added.

With a 30-billion-euro (31.8 billion U.S. dollars) cut in payroll charges and by pumping millions of euros to finance job contracts for poorly-skilled young people without work, the government aims to encourage investment and bring the number of jobless people to less than 3 million by the end of 2017.

Analysts said the eurozone's second largest economy needed to quicken its growth at least by 1 percent to start recruiting a large number of people out of work. Enditem