French unemployment fell to 8.4 per cent in February, the Les Echosbusiness daily reported on its internet site on Thursday.
However, the paper did not say whether the figure related to the French government measure or that used by the International Labour Organisation.
The last official French figures put the jobless rate at 8.5 per cent, its lowest since 1983. The satirical weekly Le Canard Enchainereported this week that European Union statistics office Eurostat was preparing revisions that could raise the French unemployment rate to 9.8 per cent.
That could lead to an increase of almost 0.2 percentage point in the European unemployment rate, it said.
French February jobless figures are expected to be released later today.