French private sector job growth grew at its fastest rate in least six years in the second quarter of the year, adding 91,700 jobs, data from the INSEE statistics agency showed on Friday. The new jobs represented a 0.5 percent increase on the previous quarter, bringing the overall level to 19.21 million. The April-June period marked the 11th straight quarter of net new job creation in the private sector.
The steady creation of new jobs is gradually helping heal France's labour market, which saw huge job losses after the 2008 global financial crisis. They pick up has also been giving President Emmanuel Macron a tailwind as his government pushes through reforms to ease labour regulations. But accelerating job creation has not yet been sufficient to bring unemployment substantially lower, partly because the number of people in the jobs market has also been rising. Private sector job growth accelerated to 0.7 percent in the services sector, accounting for the large majority of new jobs, and by 0.4 percent in the construction industry, while remaining flat in the manufacturing sector.