The year 2015 ended with a new rise in unemployment. According to statistics published on Wednesday, January 27, by the Ministry of Labor, the number of job seekers without any activity (category A) in mainland France increased by 15,800 in December (+0.4% in one month), erasing the decrease observed in November (–15,000).
Thus, unemployment increased by 0.4% (+300 people) at the end of December 2015, representing a 4.2% rise over one year in the Alpes-Maritimes.
In total, the number of job seekers required to look for a job and without activity (category A) stands at 71,234 in the department.
The overall record for the past year is, however, less bad than that of 2014: 90,000 more unemployed persons over twelve months in France (compared to +189,000 the previous year). In other words, unemployment continued to rise in 2015, but at a slower pace than in 2014 (+2.6% compared to +5.7%).
The situation is expected to improve in the coming months, according to the latest forecasts by Insee made public in mid-December 2015. The unemployment rate is expected to fall to 10.4% by the end of the first half of the year, compared to 10.6% in the last quarter of 2015. In mainland France, it would decrease to 10%, thus returning to its level of the second quarter of 2015.
