More young French adults seek opportunities abroad

FRANCE : Official figures show that the number of young French adults moving abroad to seek better job opportunities has increased by 14 percent since 2008.

According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are currently 155,266 young French adults, aged 18 to 25, who are living abroad due to the economic crisis in France, Le Figaro recently reported.

“With an unemployment rate reaching 25 percent (in their age group), young people naturally want to go abroad to avoid the bad start they would feel for several years” of their working lives, said Stephane Carcillo, a professor at the Sciences-Po university in Paris.

The French National Statistics Institute and Economic Studies (INSEE) reported on March 7 that the number of unemployed people hit a record high in February to 3.188 million.

In addition, a sampling survey conducted by the Deloitte and Ifop firms in January showed that the number of recent French university graduates who saw their future outside of France had soared to 27 percent from 13 percent in 2012.

The numbers are a major challenge for President Francois Hollande, who has pledged to curb the unemployment rate from the current level of more than 10 percent to a single-digit figure by December.

However, France’s unemployment rate has instead increased since Hollande took office in May 2012, despite his promise to create 100,000 new jobs per year.

- PRESS TV