France’s Unemployment Rate Posts an Improvement in Q4 2020

Unemployment eased lower across France during Q4 2020 after touching the highest level seen in two years during the previous quarter. According to dats released by the INSEE, the French unemployment rate fell to 8% in the last quarter of 2020 from 9.1% in Q3 2020 on account of an increase in hiring activity.

However, INSEE has cautioned that the data was skewed because of the government imposing a second lockdown for two weeks starting from the end of October. During the lockdown period, the number of people classified as unemployed decline as businesses were closed and were unable to hire workers.

On a quarterly basis, the overall rate of employment in France improved by 0.6%, rising to 65.6% from Q3 to Q4. The rate of improvement remained the same as observed from Q2 to Q3 in 2020.

Meanwhile, the average number of weekly hours workers put in at their jobs also declined by 1.3% to 30.5 hours per week during the last quarter of the previous year. The numbers have improved since Q2 when the first round of lockdowns had caused the number of hours worked per job fell by 13.1%.