Yes, it is a mess.
It is an ecto-mess, the mess-above-all-messes.
It is THE reason France cannot grow properly, and always hobbles along.
For all else flows from the vigor of an economy, and French economic vigor is not sapped by a lack of talented workers, nor by a lack of labor, nor by a lack of material resources, nor by a lack of available capital, nor, even, by excessive tax regimes and over-regulation. French taxes are not low, but they are not crushing. French regulations are not ridiculous, except in the fatal area that matters most.
France's economy cannot grow properly and provide employment because the employment law is utterly rigid, and discourages hiring. There is no way to get around it. And there is no will to change it.
You cannot assimilate anybody if he can't get a job, and people can't get jobs in France because the labor laws are insane.
And France's labor laws are MILD compared to Germany and Spain.
It is from the fatal flaws of French labor law that every other terrible problem in France flows, for it is the labor law that chokes the economy half to death.
The problem is not even vacations and benefits; although they are generous, France's economy could continue to do well if they were preserved. No, it is the inability to lay people off for economic reasons. This means that nobody hires anybody if he can at all help it. Whatever can be done by a machine in France, is done by a machine.
You cannot get people off welfare and integrated if they can't get a job. And people at the margins can't get jobs when the labor law is so punitive.
Florida takes a lot of flack for this -- no such thing as guaranteed job security here unless you work for the government or a tenured position.
I personally don't think it is such a bad thing. I'd certainly take it over France's policies any day.