France's unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 8.3% in March, its lowest in almost 24 years, from 8.4% the previous month, according to official figures.
The provisional Labour Ministry data showed the unemployment rate had fallen just over 1% in the past year.
However, the European Union statistics office, Eurostat, last month put the February jobless rate at a provisional 8.8% because it took into account a labour force survey, which French national statistics office INSEE says may not be reliable.
