Who still cares about the unemployment rate? If it has long been the alpha and omega of political discourse, this indicator has almost disappeared from the agenda of various parties. There has been almost no discussion about it in the 2024 legislative elections, for example. However, not long ago, the decline in unemployment rates made the news. In 2022, during the presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron made full employment – an unemployment rate of around 5% of the active population – a goal to be achieved by 2027.
Those times now seem so far away. The economic situation has worsened, and ambition has been lacking for several months. The latest data published by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee), Thursday 13 November, confirms this trend. In the third quarter, there were 44,000 more unemployed in France (excluding Mayotte), as defined by the International Labor Office, compared with the previous three months, for a total of 2.4 million people. The unemployment rate increased slightly, reaching 7.7% of the active population – 0.1 points higher than in the second quarter, for which INSEE slightly increased its forecast (from 7.5% to 7.6%). Over one year, the increase was 0.3 points.
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