Unemployment rate almost stable, up 0.1 points to 7.4% in the first quarter

In line with the last quarter of 2024 , unemployment figures are stagnating for 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 this Friday, May 16.

The number of unemployed people seeking work and immediately available on the labor market increased by 64,000 compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, to 2.4 million people, according to the National Institute of Statistics.

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.

In detail, 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.