A French job seeker being advised at an employment service (file photo)
France's Labor Ministry says the jobless figure in the eurozone's second-biggest economy has hit a 12-year high.
The number of the people actively looking for work had risen by 29,700 to 2.874 million at the end of December, up one percent from November, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The jobless figure is the highest since September 1999.
In 2011, France's year-on-year unemployment rate climbed 5.6 percent from 2010.
French companies such as Peugeot Citroen SA have decreased the number of their employees to tackle an economic slowdown that, some forecasts say, will turn into a recession.
But, according to analysts, the French economy is perhaps already in recession, with production shrinking in the last quarter of 2011 and the current one.
Last week, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced an EUR-430-million economic package to boost the job market and guide the country out of three years of economic crisis.
The French president also said that high labor costs were hurting the economy and introduced a plan for controversial reforms to cut the costs for employers.
Analysts say Sarkozy's economic policies have harmed business activities in the country.
“The confidence shock and the banking crisis have had clear consequences for the job market,” said Pierre-Olivier Beffy, chief economist at Exane BNP Paribas in Paris.
