2020.08.1308:47:00UTC+00France Employment Rate Falls Drastically Amid Pandemic

The French employment rate declined drastically in the second quarter to the lowest since early 2017 as the lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus dampened job creation, the statistical office Insee said Thursday.

The employment rate fell 1.6 points to 64.4 percent in the second quarter, the lowest since 2017. Employment among youth logged a marked fall of 2.9 points to reach 26.6 percent, which was the lowest since the records began in 1975.

At the same time, the jobless rate also declined in the second quarter, to the lowest since 1983 as the number of people looking for work decreased during the period of lockdown, the Insee reported.

The jobless rate fell to 7.1 percent in the second quarter from 7.8 percent in the first quarter. This was the lowest since the second quarter of 1983 when it was 7 percent.

The number of ILO unemployed people decreased by 271,000 to 2.0 million people. The unemployment rate among youth aged between 15 and 24 rose to 21 percent from 19.2 percent in the preceding period.

Among inactive people as defined by the ILO, 2.5 millions wished to work without being considered as unemployed according to the ILO definition: they made up the halo of unemployment, the Insee said.