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France jobless climbs
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December 28, 2001: 3:30 a.m. ET
Fifth consecutive rise as companies weather economic storm
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LONDON (CNN) - France's unemployment rose for the fifth consecutive month in November, as companies continued to cut jobs to cope with an economic slowdown.
The jobless rate rose 9 percent from 8.9 percent in October, the Labour ministry said on Friday. The number of unemployed rose by 39,000, or 1.7 percent, to 2,399,000 from 2,360,000 in October.
Economists polled by Reuters gave an average forecast of 9 percent for the headline jobless rate in November.
A recession in the U.S., Japan and Germany, France's biggest trading partner, is eroding consumer confidence and demand, and jobless numbers are increasing in the world's leading Group of Seven economies.
Japan's jobless rate climbed to a record high 5.5 percent in November, the Japanese government said on Friday.
The French economy, the euro zone's second largest, may stagnate this quarter and grow just 0.1 percent in the first three months of 2002, the French statistics offices INSEE has said.
But, there are signs that France is emerging from the worst of an economic slowdown. Unemployment is a lagging economic indicator and data released on Thursday suggested business confidence was improving in December.
France's Alcatel, Europe's fourth-biggest telecom equipment maker, which has announced plans to shed 10,000 jobs said in late November that prospects should improve next year. 
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