Unemployment in France hit a new record in December, with official statistics published Tuesday showing 3.496 million people claiming jobless benefits, reports Yahoo! News.
The figures showed a rise of 8,100 people on the jobless queue compared with the previous month, a rise of 0.2 percent on the month.
Overall in 2014, there were 189,100 more people out of work than in the previous year, a gain of 5.7 percent.
President Francois Hollande has pledged not to seek re-election in 2017 if he fails to bring down stubbornly high unemployment.
France's economy is barely growing, showing a gain of just 0.3 percent in the third quarter of last year.
The government in Paris is banking on a lower oil price and a weaker euro -- which makes exports cheaper -- to kick-start the economy and is banking on 0.4 percent growth for the whole year.
Nevertheless, most economists believe that France, the eurozone's second largest economy, needs a growth rate of around 1.5 percent to create jobs.