PARIS, Aug 14 (Reuters) - France continued to shed jobs in the private sector in the second quarter but the rate of decline slowed sharply, according to provisional data released by the French Industry Ministry on Friday.
The ministry said non-farm payrolls dropped 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter in the three months to June and 2.5 percent year-on-year, with some 74,100 jobs being eliminated.
This compared to 168,400 job losses in the first quarter, the ministry said -- some 24,100 fewer than originally reported.
"The easing in the job losses is above all due to a stabilisation in temporary employment," statistics office Insee said in a separate report on the data.
France posted a surprise 0.3 percent rise in gross domestic product in the second quarter against forecasts of a 0.3 percent contraction, raising hopes that Europe's second largest economy would recover from the global downturn faster than expected.
Economy Minister Christine Lagarde welcomed the growth figures, but warned that job losses would continue to mount.
"Unemployment remains our main priority. The labour market does not appear to have suffered in the second quarter as badly as in the first quarter, but job losses for the full year will be heavy," she told Friday's edition of Le Figaro newspaper.
"One shouldn't expect any miracles in the short term."
France's unemployment rate stood at 9.4 percent in June, according to the latest figures from Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency.
The Industry Ministry said the industrial sector continued to bear the brunt of the job losses, shedding 55,300 jobs in the second quarter - a 1.6 percent drop on the first quarter.
The service sector lost 22,400 jobs, a 0.2 percent decline quarter-on-quarter, while the construction industry gained 3,600 posts, a 0.2 percent increase, the ministry said.
Non-farm payroll data excludes a number of categories of workers, including general government staffers and agricultural employees. - (For a full table on the non-farm data double click on [ID:nPAB007863] - (For a story on French Q2 GDP double click on [ID:nLD348794]) (Reporting by Crispian Balmer, editing by Mike Peacock)