French unemployment surprises to the downside in the second quarter

Unemployment in France neared a four-year low in the second quarter, potentially helping French president Francois Hollande to meet his pledge to slash the number of people who were out of work ahead of the upcoming elections.

The rate of unemployment dropped from 10.2% in the first three months of 2016 to 9.9%, according to INSEE.

Economists had been expecting a reading of 10.1%.

In the metropolis, the number of unemployed fell by 74,000 to 2.8m over the three months ending in June, which was equivalent to 9.6% of the active population.

The reduction was particularly strong among youths, INSEE said in a statement, amongst which unemployment fell by 0.5 percentage points over the preceeding 12 months.

The rate of long-term unemployed was steady at 4.3% of the active population and at the same level as in the first quarter of 2016 and the comparable period of 2015.