Rising unemployment rate reaches 7.4% in the first quarter of 2025
The unemployment rate in France, as defined by the International Labour Office (ILO), increased by 0.1 percentage points in the first quarter of 2025 to reach 7.4%, INSEE announced on Friday, May 16.
The number of unemployed people, those seeking employment and immediately available on the labour market, increased by 64,000 compared to the fourth quarter of 2024 , to 2.4 million people, the National Institute of Statistics said.
Over the past year, the unemployment rate has fallen by 0.1 percentage points. It remains "slightly higher" than its low point of late 2022-early 2023, which was 7.1%, and well below its peak of 10.5% in mid-2015.
The halo around unemployment, made up of 1.9 million people who are not considered unemployed in the ILO sense because they are not looking for work or are not available, "decreased significantly" by 0.3 points over the quarter, to 4.3%, "after an increase of the same magnitude in the previous quarter" , details the Insee.
The unemployment rate for young people aged 15-24 is virtually stable (+0.1%) at 19.2% and has increased by 1.1 points over the past year. The unemployment rate for those aged 25-49 has increased by 0.1 points and fallen by 0.1 points to 6.7%.
The unemployment rate for seniors aged 50 and over remained stable over the quarter at 4.7%, down 0.3 points year-on-year. Finally, the unemployment rate for women increased by 0.3 points to 7.4%, matching that of men, which fell by 0.1 points.
La Croıx
