French jobless falls

France’s jobless rate continued to decline in the second quarter of 2019, falling 0.2 percent to settle at 8.2 percent in metropolitan France, the lowest level since early 2009, the National Statistics Institute (INSEE) said Wednesday.

President Emmanuel Macron has made tackling high unemployment one of the cornerstones of his five-year term that began in May 2017.

INSEE said that in the threemonth period from April to June, a drop of 66,000 was recorded on the jobless rolls. On a year-onyear basis, unemployment levels have fallen by 0.6 percent when compared with the second quarter of 2018.

Unemployment fell for all age categories of jobless persons, with a particularly good performance for the 25-49 years spread, where there was a drop of 0.6 percent in the second quarter. (KUNA)