Paris: French pharmaceutical group Sanofi said on Tuesday that it intends to shed 900 jobs in France by the end of 2015.

The company said in a statement that the measure was essential but that the cuts would be made mainly on a voluntary basis.

A spate of job cuts and restructuring by industrial companies is a central concern for President Francois Hollande’s Socialist administration.The government is preparing its first budget, for 2013, with growth, fighting unemployment but also reducing the budget deficit at the top of its priorities.