In the third quarter of 2025, France's unemployment rate experienced a marginal increase, rising to 7.7%, aligning with market predictions and slightly up from 7.6% in the previous quarter. This represents the highest unemployment level since the third quarter of 2021. The number of unemployed individuals increased by 44,000 to a total of 2.4 million, making the unemployment rate 0.3 percentage points higher than the previous year but still 2.8 points below the peak recorded in 2015.
Analyzing by age demographics, unemployment among individuals aged 15-24 decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 18.8%. Conversely, the rate for those aged 25-49 increased by 0.2 points to 7.1%, and for those aged 50 and above, it rose by 0.3 points to 5.1%. In terms of gender, the unemployment rate for women increased by 0.3 points to 7.7%, equalizing the rate for men.
The employment rate for the population aged 15–64 saw a slight decline, decreasing by 0.1 points to 69.4%, although it remained near a historic high. The full-time employment rate stayed constant at 57.6%, and part-time employment was steady at 11.8%. The activity rate reached 75.2%, which is 2.4 points higher than its level at the end of 2019. Meanwhile, long-term unemployment and underemployment figures remained unchanged at 1.8% and 4.4%, respectively.
