France records fewer jobless claims in November

PARIS, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- France's monthly unemployment rate was down by 0.8 percent at the end of November after it had increased by 0.2 percent a month earlier, figures released by the labor ministry showed on Wednesday.

Over the period, people without work numbered 3.45 million, down by 29,500 from October's jobless claims.

French President Emmanuel Macron is aiming to lower the joblessness rate to 7 percent by 2022 from the current 9.4 percent.

As such, he enacted legislation to lessen rigid labor rules by offering more flexibility to companies to hire and fire and more freedom in terms of pay and working conditions.

"The decisions we made at the beginning of the five-year period have no immediate impact," the head of state said in a recent interview.

"This reform will bear fruit, that's for sure, within five years. But we have to wait two years for it to begin to have its full effects," he added.

Over the past four decades, the unemployment rate has colored French politics.

In 1975, one million unemployed people forced Valey Giscard d'Estaing to quit the Elysee Palace. To satisfy two million job seekers, socialist Francois Mitterrand accepted a coalition government with the right wing in 1986 to secure a second mandate. Defeating Edouard Balladur in 1995, Jacques Chirac left office as the jobless rate jumped in 2002.

Macron's predecessor Francois Hollande was forced to not seek a second mandate on broken promises to bring down jobless claims. Enditem