PARIS, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- France registered 1.1 percent decrease in unemployment rate during the last three months of 2018 compared to a quarter earlier, mainly due to falling jobless claims of youth, official data showed Thursday.

According to the National Statistics Institute, Insee, some 3.4 million people were reported without jobs in mainland France for the October-December period last year, 38,200 less compared with the previous quarter.

On yearly basis, the rate was down by 1.5 percent, Insee data showed.

With the overseas departments taken into account, nearly 3.68 million people were still seeking for work over the period, down by 1.1 percent from the third quarter in 2018.

Insee said the unemployment rate decreased across all age groups, particularly among young people aged from 15 to 24 which reported 2.9 percent fall.

The drop in jobless claims may be a good music to the ears of President Emmanuel Macron who is struggling to gain initiative after month-long social uprising is shaking his leadership.

Via reforms of rigid labor rules to offer more flexibilities to companies and friendly-investment policy, the head of state targets to lower joblessness rate to 7 percent by 2022 from 9.1 percent currently.