Asked on Radio J about the number of job seekers hitting 2.99 million in July, Sapin said there was no doubt the number had risen beyond that.

"What will next year's unemployment rate be? Nobody knows. We have already hit three million. The numbers you are talking about, which are the numbers for July, are already outdated," Sapin said.

"The question is will it rise by very much? Yes, it will rise. At some point will we be able to reverse it? Yes," he said.

"These are economic decisions, European decisions," he said. "We need growth to create jobs."

French President Francois Hollande's Socialist government is struggling to tackle rising unemployment after he took office in May amid the debt crisis
that is dragging down European economies.