Unemployment almost stable, at 8.2%, in the third quarter

In the third quarter, the unemployment rate, as defined by the International Labor Office (ILO), was almost stable in France. According to figures published by INSEE this Tuesday, November 10, it reached 8.2% of the active population, down 0.1 point compared to the previous quarter, according to INSEE. Concretely, the number of people who are unemployed and actively looking for one has decreased by 47.

000 compared to the previous quarter, reaching 2.6 million people. Over one year, compared to the third quarter of 2025, the unemployment rate is, however, up 0.4 points. Faced with budgetary uncertainty and repeated geopolitical crises, the government is struggling to reverse the trend on the job market.

In addition to the gloomy economic context, INSEE specifies that since the implementation of the law for full employment in January 2025, “RSA beneficiaries and young people aged 15 to 29 contribute to almost half of the increase in the unemployment rate”. Pessimistic forecasts But even without taking into account this reform, which provides for the automatic registration of all RSA recipients on the lists of job seekers, Emmanuel Macron's objective of reducing the unemployment rate to 5% at the end of his second term in 2027 is nothing more than a distant memory. And the head of state's toll could rise further.

In its latest economic report published on September 10, INSEE forecast unemployment at 8.6% at the end of the fourth quarter, an increase of 0.6 points over one year. The French Institute of Economics (IFE) is even more pessimistic and anticipates an unemployment rate which would be close to 9% at the end of 2027.

Machine-translated from French