PARIS, June 30 (AFP): New French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed yesterday to build on economic momentum in France and push ahead with reforms after unemployment in the country fell to a 25-year low in May.
The employment ministry announced late Thursday that the number of people out of work had dropped by 1.2 per cent or 24,100 people to 1.987 million in May, which the government hailed as the lowest level "in more than 25 years."
The unemployment rate, calculated according to International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards, fell by 0.1 percentage points to 8.1 per cent of the active population-a high level compared with European peers.
Sarkozy, whose campaign pledge was to put France "back to work," told a group of workers on a visit to central France that he planned to cut the unemployment rate even further.
"For the first time, we are at less than two million, but it is still too high. We will get there, there is no reason why other countries succeed and we don't," he said.
Sarkozy to work on reducing French jobless figures
FE Team | Published: July 01, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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