The unemployment rate decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 7.4% of the active population (excluding Mayotte), according to the figures published this Friday by the Insee. In total, 189,000 people have exited unemployment. The number of unemployed individuals—according to the International Labour Organization (ILO) definition—thus amounted to 2.2 million people at the end of 2021.
It is now 0.8 percentage points lower than its pre-pandemic level (end of 2019), “and at its lowest level since 2008, if we exclude the temporary ‘illusory’ drop in spring 2020 related to the health crisis,” notes the national statistics institute. In the four previous quarters, unemployment remained almost stable, between 8.1% and 8%.
