France suffers from chronically high unemployment. I see a good number of French young people coming to Britain to find work because the labour market is so constricted.
This is not something new...Theodore Zeldin wrote years ago that this was leading to particular problems in terms of youth unemployment.
Regards, Ivan
"France suffers from chronically high unemployment. I see a good number of French young people coming to Britain to find work because the labour market is so constricted."
Absolutely true.
This is the Achilles' Heel of the French model (and not national health insurance or the national pension plan, really): labor law is too inflexible and too based on the model of conflict between the social partners.
There is movement to make the labor law more flexible. For example, the infamous "35 Hours" legislation has been adjusted to allow for the shifting of hours from idle periods to busy periods. Nevertheless, more must be done and it is absolutely true that unemployment is THE problem facing France.
The solution to unemployment is to make the labor law less rigid, and the employment and dismissal laws more supple and reasonable. These changes will come slowly, because of the power of the resistance. But they are already coming, and will continue, precisely because unemployment must be reduced.