France's unemployment rate rose to 10.3 percent in the third quarter of 2012, its highest since the third quarter of 1999, from 10.2 percent in the previous quarter, data published by national statistics office INSEE showed on Thursday. The jobless figure, based on the measurement criteria of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), showed the scale of the challenge President Francois Hollande faces as he seeks to make good on a goal of reversing the upward trend by the end of 2013.

Youth unemployment rose more markedly, with the jobless rate edging up to 24.9 percent, from 23.6 percent, among people under 25 years old. That was higher than any quarter on records going back to the start of 1996.

Excluding overseas territories such as the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, the unemployment rate on mainland France was 9.9 percent in the third quarter, up from 9.8 percent in the preceding three-month period. That meant the number of unemployed stood at 2.83 million in the third quarter, with the number of jobless youth, at 671,000 in mainland France, 1.4 percent higher than in the previous quarter and 2.8 percent higher than a year earlier. On the non-ILO measure issued by the Labour Ministry, the picture is even bleaker, with October data showing mainland jobless totals at 3.1 million, the highest in 14 years.

Copyright Reuters, 2012