French unemployment rate third quarter 2026, Digi Mart USA News (France): For the first time since early 2025, France’s unemployment rate slowed in the third quarter, remaining nearly stable at 8.2% of the active population, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) published Tuesday. Compared with the second quarter, the rate under the International Labour Organization (ILO) definition fell by 0.1 point.
Because the rate had risen in previous quarters, it is still up 0.4 point over one year, compared with the third quarter of 2025. At 8.2%, it remains far from President Emmanuel Macron’s original goal of reducing unemployment to 5% by the end of his second term in 2027.
“We still have progress to make to reach full employment,” said Emmanuel Moulin, governor of the Banque de France, speaking on BFM Business. He noted that “France’s unemployment rate remains higher than those of our European neighbors.”
In the third quarter, the number of people without work who are actively seeking employment fell by 47,000 from the previous quarter, to 2.6 million, INSEE reported.
Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou said, “In a context of international and trade tensions that are affecting our economy, the French labour market is doing more than resisting.” He added that “companies continue to hire despite the difficult period,” and that government measures on wages and purchasing power are “significant for French people but bearable for businesses so as not to weaken employment.” On Franceinfo, he also said a 1.6% increase in the minimum wage (SMIC) effective December 1, announced Monday, “will not harm employment.”
Trade unions were less positive. CFDT General Secretary Marylise Léon said the figures were “not good news,” adding, “there is a real employment problem, particularly for young people and seniors.” CGT General Secretary Sophie Binet criticized France for having “no strategy, no impulse toward its multinationals,” citing a “sharp deterioration of the industrial fabric.”
The slight decline in the quarterly rate applied to all age groups except those aged 50 and over, for whom it was nearly stable (up 0.1 point) at 5.6%, its highest level since the first quarter of 2022. The youth unemployment rate (ages 15-24) remains far higher than other age groups at 21%, but fell 0.5 point over the quarter.
For those aged 25-49, the rate fell 0.2 point to 7.3%.
The long-term unemployment rate (job search lasting at least one year) was stable at 2.1%, but remained at its highest level since the second quarter of 2022. INSEE noted that since the full-employment law took effect in January 2025, “beneficiaries of the RSA and young people aged 15 to 29 registered with France Travail account for a little less than half of the increase in the unemployment rate.”
In addition to the 2.6 million people counted as unemployed under the ILO definition, 1.9 million people want a job but are not counted as unemployed because they are not seeking work or are not immediately available for it. This group is known as the “halo around unemployment.”
