French President Emmanuel Macron told his first cabinet meeting on Thursday that labour reform will be one of his priorities and would be carried out swiftly, the government's spokesman said.

"The labour reform must be launched very quickly," said government spokesman Christophe Castaner.

Macron had said during the election campaign that he intended to use executive decrees as soon as this summer to reform labour laws in a country where unemployment remains high at 9.6 percent.