The French unemployment rate hit its highest level in ten years in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to official government data.

The national statistics agency Insee revealed that the European country's national jobless figure rose to ten per cent in the final three months of last year, which is 1.8 per cent more than recorded at the beginning of 2009.

More than 2.7 million labor market members are now without employment in France, despite president Nicolas Sarkozy's promise to the population earlier this year that the worst of the economic crisis was over.

Eric Woerth, French budget minister, claimed that the unemployment rate should begin to improve with the economy during the early part of 2010.

He said: "We believe that starting in the second quarter of this year, we will begin to see the unemployment rate drop - I hope, touch wood, but I have no crystal ball."

Yesterday (March 3rd), EurActiv disclosed that the continent's new industrial policy will focus on sustainable jobs growth as part of a strategy to exit the economic crisis.