France's monthly unemployment rate hits lowest level since 1996

France's jobless claims dropped by 1.9 percent in September compared to a month earlier, reaching the lowest level since 1996, government data released on Tuesday showed.

Last month, 3.49 million people in France had no job, 66,300 less than the number registered in August, and reported a year-on-year decline of 1.7 percent, according to the labor ministry.

So far, the domestic job market received 90,000 fewer jobseekers. The data is a good news to President Francois Hollande, who is struggling to reverse slumping popularity due to long-running rise in unemployment rate.

The fall of jobless claims in September was "mainly due to people returning to work," according to the ministry.

"Our actions to increase employment and fight against unemployment have proved to be effective. The actions will continue in the coming months thanks to the budgetary effort," Labor Minister Myriam El Khomri said in a statement.

"These results encourage us to continue our efforts, particularly in jobseekers training and support our small and medium enterprises," she added.

Hollande has set reversing jobless claims as a condition to extend his stay at the Elysee Palace, betting on better business climate and various measures he implemented to encourage employment.

On his facebook account, Hollande, whose popularity kept tumbling on broken promises to create more jobs, hailed significant decrease in unemployment, but said "the battle is not over."

"These results are the fruit of efforts of the government ... Our common duty is to continue this fight with constancy and perseverance and promote growth without undermining our social model," he wrote. Endit