Paris: French President Francois Hollande pledged Monday to spend more than 2.0 billion euros ($2.2 billion) on a package of measures to fight the stubbornly high unemployment that has dogged his four years in power.
Hollande said France was in "a state of economic emergency" and needed new measures urgently, but he promised that they would not come from tax rises.
"These two billion euros will not be financed through extra taxes of any kind. They will be financed by savings," Hollande said in a speech to business leaders.
One billion euros will be spent on training schemes for unemployed people.
Joblessness, which stands at around 10 percent or 3.57 million people in the eurozone's second-largest economy, was the "only issue which ranks above security for the French people", the president said.
Hollande, a Socialist, said France needed to "increase the pace of reforms" and innovation was "key" to getting people back to work.
"France must also increase training, education and the level of qualifications of its workers," he said.
Under the new measures to stimulate recruitment, companies employing fewer than 250 people will receive a 2,000-euro bonus for each new employee with a contract of more than six months, under certain conditions.
Hollande dismissed suggestions that he was trying to "artificially" reduce unemployment as he prepares for a bid to secure re-election in the 2017 presidential election, but the new measures were greeted with scorn by the opposition.
"What planet are Francois Hollande and his government living on if they think it is enough to pay a company that takes someone on a cheque of 1,000 or 2,000 euros?" said Guillaume Larrive, of the right-wing Republicans led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
After several years of sluggish growth, the French economy took another blow with the jihadist attacks in November that killed 130 people, which slowed activity in the fourth quarter.
AFP
