French employment growth decelerates

Employment growth in France slows down, while real wages fall. The recent loss of momentum in the French economy was seen in the report released today as the increase in private sector employment in the third quarter was affirmed to be less than thought originally.

The rise of 22.4k left private sector payrolls up just 0.1 percent quarterly and 197k and 1 percent higher compared with the third quarter of 2017. Moreover, there was a further fall in public sector payrolls, down for the fourth quarter out of the past five to leave them 0.4 percent lower than a year earlier.

Sector wise, payroll employment dropped again in the manufacturing sector to its lowest level in one year. However, employment in construction rose to the highest level since the fourth quarter of 2014 and, excluding temporary workers, service sector payrolls rose too, noted Daiwa Capital Market Research in a report.

“Against this mixed backdrop, however, average monthly wage growth slowed to 0.3 percent Q/Q in Q3, to leave the year-on-year increase unchanged at 1.5 percent, implying a real-terms decline of 0.7 percent Y/Y, perhaps one factor behind the recent deterioration in consumer sentiment and broader social discontent”, said Daiwa Capital Market Research.

At 18:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Euro was neutral at -44.0955, while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was slightly bullish at 68.9191. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex