The number of unemployed people in France has hit a new high as the country grapples with the fallout of the financial crisis and a sluggish eurozone recovery, the Labour Department reported Friday. At the end of June, there were 3.398 million people who were registered as being without a job in the eurozone's second-largest economy, 0.3 per cent more than in the previous month. Compared to June of last year, the number of jobless was up 4 percent. In a glimmer of positive news, the number of unemployed youth was down compared to last year: those under 25 without a job decreased by 3.1 per cent to 535,000. France's 10.1-per-cent unemployment rate is nearly twice as high as in neighbouring Germany, which registers a 5.1-per-cent rate. Downward spiralling labour markets figures have become a political flashpoint for the Socialist government of President Francois Hollande, who pledged to stop the trend before the end of 2013.
