French Unemployment Surges at Record Pace in March

(Bloomberg) --

The number of registered job seekers in France surged at the fastest pace since records began nearly a quarter of a century ago, indicating that the state-funded furlough program won’t be enough to prevent significant damage to the labor market.

The labor ministry said the jump last month was driven by temporary workers registering as unemployed and those already claiming benefits struggling to find jobs. Temporary workers aren’t covered by the government’s 24-billion-euro ($26 billion) furlough program, which mainly benefits people in secure, permanent contracts.

The number of category A job-seekers -- a closely watched measure of people who haven’t worked at all for a month -- rose by 246,100, or 7.1%, the steepest increase since the records began in 1996. That’s about three times the previous high of 77,300 that was hit during was during the financial crisis in March 2009.

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