PARIS — French riot police used teargas to disperse protesters outside the Paris auto show on a day of street demonstrations over mounting job losses in a country where unemployment is at its highest since 1999 and economic growth at a standstill.

The incident came as the CGT labor union, one of the two biggest in France, sought to flex its muscles by organizing street rallies in the first nationwide protests since Socialist President Francois Hollande took power in May.

Police intervened after protesters including workers from a doomed PSA Peugeot Citroen plant attempted to break through a security cordon around the location of the car show on the edge of Paris, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.