A rebound in France’s economy is creating jobs at the fastest rate in five years, giving a fillip to the government’s push to cut the country’s crippling unemployment rate before next year’s elections.

The upbeat French employment data followed gross domestic product figures earlier this week showing that the 12-country eurozone grew by 0.9 per cent in the second quarter of this year – faster than the US. They showed that “the eurozone is now creating jobs at a faster rate than in the US,” according Holger Schmieding, economist at Bank of America.