The November unemployment figures are out and they make grim reading for France. There were 18,500 more on the dole last month, wiping out October's better figures, although President François Hollande says the trend is improving and new jobs are being created.
"I've lost confidence. I've been looking for a job since the end of 2007 and I haven't noticed any change. The employment agency does nothing to help me and I just turned 50, so clearly I don't see any hopeful perspectives for 2014 or after. I have no confidence any more. I don't trust the Labour minister Sapin, and I don't trust the politicians. I'll just have to fight by myself," said one female jobseeker.
The figures come on the heels of a CEBR report predicting France will be the worst-performing of the Western economies in the years to come. From the world's fifth-largest economy it is forecast to drop to 12th by 2028.
"The Socialists are following an economic policy that crashes companies, that thinks that only assisted contracts, taxes and public credit will create jobs. Of course it is not working," said a member of the UMP opposition Roger Karoutchi.
French unemployment currently stands at around 11 percent and is not forecast to fall until at least next summer.
Source: Euronews
