French unemployment up

French unemployment rose again in December with the number of registered jobseekers increasing by 29,700 to reach 2.87 million, the labour ministry said on Wednesday. The number of jobseekers in France had hit its highest level since 1999 in November, with 2.84 million registered. The December figure was one percent higher than in November and 5.6 higher than in December 2010.
Facing a tough election battle in three months, President Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed to tackle growing joblessness in the French economy, hit by the eurozone debt crisis. At a summit this month, he announced 430 million euros ($558 million) worth of new measures to encourage struggling firms to keep workers on and to retrain them.