Economy tops election agenda as France prepares for crucial May poll France's economic outlook has returned to the forefront of the country's presidential campaign after new figures released yesterday showed the number of jobseekers rose for the 11th consecutive month in March. François Hollande - the socialist front-runner for the 6 May run-off election - was quick to seize on the new data from the labour ministry showing the number of job seekers rose 0.6 per cent last month to 2.88 million. Mr Hollande called job creation "the key issue" of the campaign that pits him against president Nicolas Sarkozy. Last month, French statistical body INSEE said the unemployment rate in France rose to 9.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011, the most recent period for which figures are available. "I won't do like the incumbent in 2007 and say I'll cut unemployment to 5 per cent and then finish my term with unemployment at 10 per cent as it is now," Mr Hollande proclaimed. The socialist, who polls give every chance of making Mr Sarkozy the first French president in more than three decades to lose his re-election bid, said he would aim to boost France's economic growth by supporting small and medium enterprises and mobilising French savers" significant financial resources to benefit industry. Mr Sarkozy has blamed France's stubbornly high unemployment on the financial sovereign debt crisis that has swept up Europe. Prime minister François Fillon sought to defend the president's record. In an interview in French daily Les Echos, Mr Fillon said France's "the level of unemployment is rather lower than in other European countries." However, Mr Fillon said any improvement in job creation would not occur before the second half of the year, or possibly the end of 2012. Mr Hollande also appeared to give a nod to far-right voters who could decide the outcome of the election yesterday. "In a period of crisis, which we are experiencing, limiting economic immigration is necessary and essential," he said. Mr Hollande answered evasively when asked repeatedly on prime-time television on Thursday whether he thought there were too many foreigners in France, as Mr Sarkozy and National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who won 17.9 percent of the first round vote, have both proclaimed in campaign speeches. The socialist candidate said that if elected, he would have parliament fix an annual quota for non-European Union foreigners coming to France to take up jobs. There will always be legal immigration. Can the number be reduced? That's the debate," Mr Hollande said. In my view, that's the kind of level that would apply in times of crisis. In any case, the numbers will be managed. Mr Hollande also said he would uphold and enforce a ban on all-enveloping Muslim veils, known as the niqab or burqa, even though he abstained in a 2010 parliamentary vote when Mr Sarkozy proposed the law. The election race dominated by the economy has now boiled down to whether Mr Sarkozy can lure enough of Ms Le Pen's supporters to his side in the run-off to eat into Mr Hollande's lead of between 6 and 10 percentage points in polls taken earlier this week.