Number of unemployed in France jumps over 2 million

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

PARIS, Dec. 30 (Chinese media) -- The number of France's jobless people jumped by

64,000 to 2.07 million in November as companies cut jobs in response to the

global economic slowdown, the finance and labor ministry said Tuesday.

The French unemployment rate rose 3.2 percent in November compared to the

previous month, and 8.5 percent year on year, according to the ministry,

The French economy grew 0.1 percent in the third quarter after a

0.3-percent drop in the second quarter, narrowly avoiding a recession.

The National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies forecast that

France's gross domestic product would fall 0.8 percent in the last quarter of

2008 and contract 0.4 percent in the first quarter of the new year.