* Jobless rate hits 25 pct mark for young people
* Youth jobless rate well above European average
* Overall ILO unemployment rate steady at 9.7 pct
(Updates with detail on jobless figures)
By Brian Love
PARIS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - France's youth unemployment rate rose to a record 25 percent in the third quarter, well above the European average, and the overall jobless rate remained stuck at 9.7 percent in the latest gloomy news for euro zone growth.
The jobless rate among people aged 15-24 years rose from 24.2 percent in the preceding April-June quarter, the highest level on records going back to 1975, data showed on Thursday.
The rise in youth unemployment -- a key concern among voters -- erased a brief dip early in the year and left it well above the 18.5 percent it stood at in early 2008 before the global economic crisis hit in earnest.
While France's overall jobless rate is lower than the euro zone average, last reported at 10.1 percent as of October, the rate among under-25s is well above the euro zone average of 20.1 percent, EU statistics show. The overall jobless rate of 9.7 percent was unchanged from the previous quarter and compares to a peak of 10 percent in late 2009 during the latest economic crisis.
The government had seized on declines in the first half of this year as evidence the jobs market was starting to look up, but the latest statistics office data suggests the jury is still out on that front, and not just for young people.
Opinion polls regularly put unemployment way out on top of the list of French voter concerns. A survey by polling agency OpinionWay, published in mid-November, showed 64 percent of people rated it the government's top priority, with deficit reduction a distant second.
Joblessness moderated for people aged 25-49, dipping to 8.8 percent in the third quarter from 8.9 percent the quarter before and a peak of 9.1 percent for the latest economic crisis, reached in late 2009.
But for people of age 50 upwards, the jobless rate increased to 6.6 percent in the third quarter from 6.4 percent in the second, lifting it to just short of a crisis peak of 6.7 percent.
Many young people who joined massive street demonstrations over pension reform in recent months complained that a two-year rise in the minimum retirement age, to 62, will further crimp their job prospects.
Discounting its overseas territories, the unemployment rate in France remained stuck at 9.3 percent in the third quarter.
For more details in English, click on the following link: www.insee.fr/en/themes/info-rapide.asp?id=14&date=20101202 (Reporting by Brian Love; Editing by Toby Chopra)