PARIS, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- France's unemployment rate decreased to 8.5 percent of the labor force in the second quarter of 2019, hitting its lowest level since early 2009, official data said Wednesday.
The jobless rate in the eurozone's second-largest economy decreased by 0.2 percentage points from 8.7 percent in the first quarter (Q1), following a drop of 0.1 percentage points in Q1, said the country's statistics authority Insee.
On a yearly basis, the jobless rate fell by 0.6 percentage points, according to the data.
In metropolitan France, the number of the unemployed decreased by 66,000 to 2.4 million people. The fall is more pronounced among young people below 25.
France's unemployment rate hit 9.7 percent in 2017 when President Emmanuel Macron took office. Macron pledged labor market reforms and promised to bring unemployment rate down to 7 percent by 2022.
