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French jobless up in January
FRENCH unemployment rose in January, according to its labour ministry’s measure of joblessness.
There were 3,169,300 category A job seekers in the first month of the year, Pole Emploi, the French labour ministry said yesterday, up 43,900 on December, and up 10.7 per cent on the previous January.
Category A job seekers are those completely unemployed, and registered as looking for work.
The surge will be a blow to socialist President Francois Hollande, who has suffered a raft of economic setbacks since taking power last year, when he promised to boost jobs. Especially disheartening for Hollande will be the return to rapid unemployment growth after December marked a break in a 19 month stretch of worsening joblessness numbers.