PARIS (Reuters) - More than 2.5 million people demonstrated across France on Tuesday to demand the withdrawal of a youth job contract imposed by the government, the Force Ouvriere trades union said.
"We should reach three million as on the 28th of March," a spokesman for the union said. Some 700,000 people demonstrated in the capital Paris, he said, the same figure given by the main CGT union.
Official police figures put the turnout at the March 28 demonstrations at just over one million.
Tuesday's protests were being closely watched for signs they had peaked in the wake of concessions offered by President Jacques Chirac and the ruling conservatives in the past week.
The focus of the protests, the First Job Contract (CPE), gives firms the right to summarily lay off the under-26s any time during a two-year period.
The government says it will encourage firms to hire staff and so reduce high youth unemployment, but unions and students say it undermines job security.
JENNY BARCHFIELD, Associated Press Writer
PARIS - Demonstrators opposed to a new jobs law clashed with police in downtown Paris on Tuesday, throwing stones and debris as they dodged tear gas canisters. Several people were seen being carried away by authorities.
A nationwide strike shut down the Eiffel Tower and snarled air and rail travel for the second time in a week Tuesday while students barricaded themselves in schools to protest a jobs measure that has riven the country and put the government in crisis mode.
Protesters have mounted ever-larger demonstrations for two months against the law, which would make it easier to fire young workers. But President Jacques Chirac signed it anyway Sunday, saying it will help France keep pace with the global economy.