French unemployment hit a record high of 3.3 million in December, in a further blow to the economic policies of Socialist President Francois Hollande.
The number of people who were fully unemployed rose by 10,200 or 0.3 percent in December, according to the French labor ministry. For 2013 as whole, unemployment rose by 5.7 percent.
“Even though over recent months the pace of labor market deterioration has halved from year-ago levels, it has failed, to stabilize despite the government’s efforts to reverse the negative trend in the labor market,” said Fabrice Montagne, an economist at Barclays Research in an evening note.