François Hollande’s credibility is lying in tatters after figures indicated he had failed to deliver on a central government promise to "turn the tide" on unemployment by year's end.
Riding lower in the polls than any of his postwar predecessors, the Socialist leader chose to defy predictions by the IMF, the European Commission and the vast majority of private economists to bank on a turnaround in French unemployment by the end of 2013.
"I will be judged on it," he told the nation in a Bastille Day television interview over the summer, in what even allies said was a deeply risky bet.
On Thursday night, labour ministry data showed that the bet was all but lost as the number of people registered as out of work in mainland France had grown by 17,800 in November to 3.29 million. This almost wiped out the 19,900 fall in the number of jobless in October – a figure that ministers had prematurely insisted was the first glimmer of economic recovery.
The number of unemployed now accounts for more than 10.5 per cent of the working population - perilously close to a record high.
Henry Samuel reporting in the Telegraph
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