France's jobless rate fell in the third quarter, helped by faster growth, but economists cautioned that a slowdown at the end of the year could discourage firms from hiring more people.
National statistics office INSEE said the unemployment rate in the eurozone's second largest economy fell to 8.3 percent in the third quarter, marking a large decrease from the 9.3 percent without work in the same period a year ago.
INSEE said the unemployment rate stood at 8.5 percent in the second quarter, revising it from 8.4 percent reported before. Economist Dominique Barbet at BNP Paribas said the fall in unemployment in the third quarter had been helped by relatively strong economic growth of 0.7 percent over that three months.
France's Economy Minister Christine Lagarde welcomed the drop in the unemployment rate given for mainland France, without including overseas territories, which stood at 7.9 percent in the July-September period.
However, economists have said the government's economic outlook, with growth seen at 2.0-2.5 percent both this year and next, might be optimistic. Tuesday's INSEE data followed separate Labour Ministry data last month, which showed the total number of unemployed in France fell in October, but there were signs the downtrend which has been in place for more than two years may be slowing.
INSEE launched a revised job data series last month, aligning it with European Union norms, after a controversy over the accuracy of unemployment data took the shine off previously reported declines in joblessness.
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