France's unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points to 10.4 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the last three months of 2012, the national statistical agency Insee said Thursday.
According to the national statistical authority, the eurozone's second largest economy hit 14-year high joblessness rate during the January-March period. With the overseas departments taken into account, the quarterly jobless rate rose to 10.8 percent, reported Xinhua.
In the face of growing army of jobseekers and wane growth, the government is working to stimulate job creation through state subsidies.
Thanks to the "jobs of the future" plan, it aims to recruit 150,000 young people mainly the poorly qualified workers from disadvantaged suburbs and rural areas in mainly public sector.
Targeting the reverse of the jobless curve by the end of this year, French President Francois Hollande considers job creation his "sole priority and mobilization".