France's jobless rate fell slightly in January, but the drop was due mainly to a reduction in the number of people registered as unemployed and did not reflect a rise in job creation, analysts said today.
France's jobless rate fell in January to 9.6 per cent from 9.7 per cent in December, according to data from the Labour Ministry, which released the figures yesterday ahead of official publication after they were leaked by French media.
"This drop in unemployment is deceptive and is due mainly to technical factors," said Mr Marc Touati, economist at Natexis Banques Populaires. He said a large number of people had been struck from jobless registers at the start of the year.
"Despite the recovery, job prospects in industry remain negative. French companies are waiting to see growth consolidated before hiring," he said.
The number of people officially registered as out of work fell by 23,000, down 0.9 percent month-on-month, to 2,612,000 on the basis of International Labour Organisation criteria.
The drop in the headline jobless rate beat the forecasts of economists polled by Reuters, who had expected it to be unchanged.
Nonetheless, the unemployment rate in France, the euro zone's second largest economy, remained sharply above the euro zone level of 8.8 percent.