French Unemployment at Record High

Spain also experiencing rise in unemployment

The number of category A job seekers--that is registered job seekers who are fully unemployed--rose 1.2% in March from February to 3,224,600, according to figures from Dares, the labor ministry's data department. That breaks the previous record of 3.196 million seen in January 1997 and marks an 11.5% increase from March a year ago, just before Mr. Hollande took power in May.

It was the 23rd consecutive month unemployment in absolute terms has increased. According to the Dares data, which goes back to 1996, there have never been so many unemployed people in France.