French jobless rate rises to an estimated 10.8 percent

France's unemployment rate rose to 10.8 percent in the first quarter of 2013, casting fresh doubt on President Francois Hollande 's goal of reversing the rising jobless trend by year-end. The jobless rate, published by the INSEE statistics agency on Thursday, was slightly below a forecast of 10.9 percent in a Reuters poll and up from 10.5 percent in the final quarter of 2012. The euro zone's second-largest economy fell into a shallow recession in the first quarter and the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund both forecast that it will slightly contract overall in 2013. All of the economists polled by Reuterssaid they believed the government would miss its target of reversing unemployment by year-end, a goal Hollande set a few months after winning power in May 2012 and says he will stand by despite widespread scepticism. "It is hard to see how the jobless trendcan come down before the end of the year," said ING economist Julien Manceaux, pointing at France's bleak economic outlook and lagging competitiveness. Among the unemployed, some are verysceptical about the chances of the job market improving any time soon. "He is going to reverse the unemployment trend? Really? By doingwhat?" 38-year-old Astrid Mabiana, a mother of three who has been unemployed for most of the past four years, asked of Hollande's job pledge as she left an employment agency a few days ago. Unemployment is expected to increase throughout the year, to hit 11.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 and stand at 11.2 percent for the full year, according to the Reuters poll of 12 French and international economists. INSEE said that the quarterly unemployment data measured according to International Labour Organisation standards was only an estimate, pointing out to technical difficulties that include new proceduresto collect data. The data does not include the small overseas territory of Mayotte or give a breakdown of the youth unemployment rate, INSEE said.