France's monthly jobless claims down slightly in July

Unemployment in France inched down 0.1 percent at the end of July from June, and recorded a year-on-year growth of 3.9 percent, the French Labor Ministry said on Wednesday.

Last month, as the government was struggling to bring down joblessness, there were 1,900 less job demands, with the total number of people without work standing at more than 3.551 million in the mainland, the ministry added.

"For two months, there has been a stabilization in the number of job seekers. This trend is consistent with the reached economic results as growth recovers by 0.7 percent in the first half and companies create 27,000 new jobs over the same period," said Labor Minister Francois Rebsamen.

"The commitment of all, especially that of companies that benefit from the government's incentives, is more than ever necessary so that unemployment falls permanently," he added.

The ruling Socialist Party is working to trim the number of unemployment benefit claims to less than three million by the end of 2017.

They tried to stimulate hiring by offering companies a 30 billion euro (34.2 billion U.S. dollar) reduction in payroll charges, improving training, facilitating recruitment rules, and pumping millions of euros into financing job contracts in the public sector.