* Total jobless up 27,100 m/m to 2.725 mln in December
* December unemployment up 3 pct year-on-year
(Adds economist comment, historical ranking)
PARIS, Jan 26 (Reuters) - French unemployment rose 1 percent in December from November, labour ministry data showed on Wednesday, the highest level since March 2000 in an sign of ongoing job market fragility in the euro zone's second-biggest economy. The number of registered jobseekers increased by 27,100 to 2.725 million from the month before. The December 2010 figure was 3 percent higher year-on-year, or some 80,000 higher than at the end of 2009. In November, the jobless total had grown 0.8 percent from October.
The data is not prepared according to widely used International Labour Organisation standards and does not include an unemployment rate. But as the most reported domestic jobs indicator in France it is politically significant.
France's unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent in the third quarter of 2010, the national statistics office INSEE said on Dec 2. Excluding its overseas territories, the rate was 9.3 percent. [ID:nLDE6B108B]
Even as the economic recovery gains momentum, France, like much of Europe, is struggling to get more people into jobs, with the young and the old hardest hit by unemployment.
"The fragile economic situation of France, in-between buoyant northern Europe and bleak southern Europe looks unstable, said BNP Paribas economist Dominique Barbet.
Broken down by age group, the labour ministry's data showed the number of jobseekers under 25 rose by 1.1 percent month-on-month in December and those over 50 rose by 1.6 percent.
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.
Despite the high unemployment figures, consumer spending in France rose in December, as the final month of a car scrappage scheme drew drivers into car showrooms.
INSEE said spending rose by 0.6 percent in December compared to the previous month. [ID:nLDE70O0U0]
(Reporting by Brian Love and Helen Massy-Beresford; Editing by Ron Askew)