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Paris - The number of unemployed in France declined for the second time in three months in October, falling by 20 500 to 3.27 million, the Labour Ministry said Thursday.
The figures are good news for President Francois Hollande, whose promise to make unemployment start falling by the end of the year had begun to look tenuous.
"The reversal of the unemployment curve has henceforth begun," Hollande declared in a statement, minutes after the unemployment figures were released.
The drop in the number of people out of work is the second since August, when unemployment fell for the first time since April 2011. Those gains were reversed a month later, as unemployment rose again, hitting a record 3.29 million.
October's figures, which appeared to confirm the downward trend, show that "the battle for employment can be won," Hollande said, while warning it would "take time."
While the number of people with no work fell, the number of people with part-time jobs who registered with the unemployment office rose, nudging up the total number of registered jobseekers by 0.8% to 4.88 million.
The Labour Ministry interpreted the overall increase as a good sign, saying it showed the number of short-term hires had grown.
France's unemployment rate stood at 10.9% in the second quarter, according to statistics agency Insee.
