The unemployment rate rises very slightly to 7.4% in the third quarter

The unemployment rate in France rose very slightly in the third quarter of 2024, to reach 7.4% of the active population, INSEE announced on Wednesday November 13. This rate, calculated according to the International Labor Office and harmonized at European level, was at the same level a year earlier and 7.3% in the second quarter, said the National Institute of Statistics.

This summer, 35,000 additional people were hit by unemployment, a very small change which led the institute to say that the unemployment rate is “quasi-stable”. The low point of the unemployment curve since 1982 was reached at the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023 with a rate of 7.1%, and the rate for the third quarter of 2024 remains 3.1 points below its peak in mid-2015. But it increases sharply among young people aged 15 to 24, by 1.8 points over one quarter to reach 19.7%, while it decreases by 0.3 points among those aged 50 and over and by 0.1 points. among 25 – 49 year olds.

The unemployment rate is increasing among men, gaining 0.3 points to 7.6% over one quarter, while it decreases by 0.2 points to 7.2% among women. The employment rate of 50-64 year olds, which the government wants to see rise with the pension reform, has reached its highest level since INSEE began measuring it in 1975, at 68.8%. Finally, the halo around unemployment, made up of people who do not have a job because they are not looking for one or are not available, decreases with 89,000 fewer people over one quarter, and 187,000 fewer than 'a year ago.