French bonds are rallying; French stocks are rallying; French PMI is rising (though still below 50); so everything must be great in the Gallic nation. Despite a Brit having won the Tour de France for the 2nd year in a row, however, it seems the dismal reality on Main Street is that the number of unemployed French people has reached yet another all-time record high. As Les Echos noted previously, this casts even greater doubt on President Francois Hollande's pledge to reverse a long-running rise in joblessness. As we have explained in great detail (here [5] and here [6] most recently) France's economic fortunes remain depression-like and today's Jobseeker data merely goes to confirm this.
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and if you are an over 50 year old French woman, good luck...
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Chart: Bloomberg