国际英语新闻：Sarkozy says to mobilize half billion euros for employment

PARIS, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- French President Nicolas Sakozy said Thursday that he has decided to mobilize a half billion euros (680 million U.S. dollars) of the state's budget to ameliorate slack employment in the country.

Sarkozy made the remarks in a live broadcast on local television channel TF1 when being asked by a panel of ordinary citizens invited to the show.

The money will be distributed within three months to offer jobs and skill training for the unemployed, the president said. It will come from savings of all ministries.

He also promised a bonus-and-punishment policy for employers in a way to encourage larger companies to hire more apprentices and open temporary positions. He drew an outlook of increasing apprentice number to one million in France.

By the third quarter of 2010, there were 2.6 million jobless people in metropolitan France, translating into an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent, according to the national statistics bureau Insee.