Job creation back at 2007 levels

French employers created 268,800 new salaried jobs in 2017 - the most for a decade - official figures reveal.

National statistics agency Insee said that the number of new jobs created last year was the highest since 2007, and was a 1.1% year-on-year increase. In total, France had 25.07 million employees at the end of 2017.

Unemployment fell 1.1% to 8.9% year on year.

The job-creation figures are a marked improvement on previous years. In 2016, 236,300 jobs were created, compared to 103,100 in 2015. The three previous years were marked by declines in the number of jobs.

The industrial sector accounted for 6,400 of the 72,700 jobs created in the final quarter of 2017 alone, Insee's figures reveal - the first increase in the sector since 2001, while job growth in the construction industry also accelerated, with 13,200 in the final quarter, 2,500 more than in the third quarter. The number of agricultural jobs offered rose by 5,000 in 2017.

Public service jobs, however, were in decline, the statistics body said, as job losses accelerated. Over the year as a whole, 8,900 jobs disappeared, after a total 24,100 had been created in 2016.