French President François Hollande has hailed 2013 as the year of the "great battle for jobs". But figures released Thursday show a rise in the jobless rate for the nineteenth consecutive month – and the forecast is for worse to come.
France's faltering economy shed a further 30,000 jobs in November, according to new figures released Thursday, pushing the unemployment rate to its highest level in almost 15 years.
The alarming data, although expected, is another blow to the country’s Socialist government and its president, who called earlier in the day for a collective “mobilisation” to deal with the ongoing employment crisis.
With France’s unemployment rate crashing through the symbolic 10% mark this year, the president could offer no seasonal cheer when he made a surprise visit to Europe's largest wholesale market in Rungis, south of Paris.
“During this festive season I have to tell the French that it must be all hands on deck in the battle against unemployment,” said the president, who decided not to take any Christmas holidays following criticism in the French media when he took time off in August . “My goal is that unemployment, which has been rising for nearly two years now, begins to decline,” Hollande said, though admitting this may not happen until the end of 2013.
Read more: Outlook bleak as Hollande hails 2013 'battle for jobs' - FRANCE - FRANCE 24
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