The unemployment rate in France rose to 8.3% in the second quarter of 2026 from 8.1% in the previous quarter, topping market forecasts of 8.2%. This was the highest level since the third quarter of 2020, with the number of unemployed people rising by 62,000 to 2.7 million. The jobless rate was also 0.7 percentage points higher than in the same period last year.