Morning Forex Fundamental: EUR

Morning Forex Fundamental: EUR

This run of negative figures on employment only increases our resolve to do something to reverse the trend between now and the end of next year' - Labor Minister Michel Sapin

French unemployment rate soared to a 14-year high

Impact High

The number of unemployed people in France soared to the highest level since April 1998, putting more pressure on socialist president Francois Hollande, who has pledged to halt the relentless rise by the end of 2013. The number of jobseekers in France rocketed 45,400, or 1,5%, while unemployment hit 3.103 million of people in October, the Ministry of Labor said. However, the increase is only slightly smaller than in the previous month, when saw the biggest jump in jobless rolls since April 2009.

'This run of negative figures on employment only increases our resolve to do something to reverse the trend between now and the end of next year,' Labor Minister Michel Sapin said in a statement.

'When I said I don't want Mittal in France anymore, I meant to say that I didn't want Mittal's method of not honoring commitments in France,' said French Minister of IR Arnaud Montebourg.

Also Thursday, the German Labor Agency said that the number of Germans unemployed ticked down slightly this month, despite the fact that Europe's largest economy is slowing. Unemployment rose by 5,000 in seasonally adjusted terms in November to 2.939 million, below analysts' forecasts of a 15,000 increase. At the same time, the overall unemployment rate stood at 6.9%.