PARIS, June 19 (Xinhua) -- The French government sticks to its target of bringing down the country's unemployment rate to 7 percent by 2022 unless eventual global economic troubles affect domestic businesses, French Labor Minister Muriel Penicaud said here on Wednesday.
"We have taken a new step," the minister told BFMTV news television, explaining that, contrary to projections that the unemployment rate would not fall below 9 percent, "here we have the lowest rate in 10 years."
Currently, the jobless rate stands at 8.7 percent against 9.7 percent in 2017, according to the minister. "It remains very high," she acknowledged.
Penicaud reiterated the government's target of lowering the unemployment rate to 7 percent by the end of President Emmanuel Macron's five-year term "if international macroeconomic elements do not change the trend".
"It's an ambitious objective. There are citizens looking for jobs and companies looking for skills. So, we need to be able to reduce it to 7 percent and for that aim, we are reforming trainings and unemployment benefits," the minister said.
