France blames 'malfunction' for jobs figures

France's labour ministry on Monday cut in half the number of jobseekers it said had left the unemployment rolls in August, blaming a "malfunction" with a mobile phone company. The ministry announced last week that the number of registered jobseekers in France fell in August for the first time in more than two years, dropping by 50,000 to 3.23 million. But in a fresh statement on Monday, the ministry said that after an investigation it was revising the figure and the number of jobseekers had fallen by only between 22,000 and 29,000. "A malfunction attributable to (mobile telephone) operator SFR, which was acting as a service provider... has been identified," it said. The malfunction meant that some jobseekers did not renew their registration because they did not receive reminders managed by SFR. The ministry said the mistake did not diminish the significance of the turn-around in unemployment. "This remains the first decrease in 27 months and the most significant since December 2007," it said.