As youth unemployment soars, France offers to let companies hire young people on its dime

Washington Post/AP ^ | 29 August 2012

[Lorianne]

PARIS — The French government wants companies to hire young people so much that it’s offering to pick up the tab.

The new Socialist president, Francois Hollande, told his Cabinet Wednesday that he wants to wage a war on unemployment and unveiled a plan for the government to pay most of the salaries of tens of thousands of young people hired next year.

European employers are especially reluctant to hire young people because restrictive labor laws make it hard for companies to lay off employees.

Under France’s new plan, companies that hire a person between 16 and 25 for at least a year will only have to pay as little as 25 percent of the salary. The government hopes to create 100,000 of these “contracts for the future” next year and another 50,000 in 2014. It has promised to continue paying its share of the employee’s salary for three years.

The government will give preference to young people hired from poor urban or rural areas that have been hit hardest by rising unemployment. Certain sectors will also be favored, such as medicine and digital or green technology.

[Pining_4_TX]

Don’t laugh too hard. This is not much different from the ridiculous economic development agencies, boards, etc. that we have here. The chamber of commerce types go on nice trips on the taxpayer’s dime in order to bribe companies to relocate to some state, city, or town, for what? Why to create jobs, of course! It’s like the old Soviet 5-year plans with a different name.

If I owned a business, I would sue my local government for using my money to bring in competition that gets a better tax deal than I do. We have hundreds of industrial parks that small cities and towns built to lure business to the community, and they have all failed miserably.

The only thing that creates wealth and jobs is the free market!

[Cronos]

if obama gets reelected, this is the usa

[Cronos]

if obama gets reelected, this is the usa

[Moltke]

Sounds like Hollande is hoping to be able to sell reams of government bonds to the ECB soon...

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

That's the problem with the Euro. The French Central Bank cannot just print all the money it wants.

I was struck by the WP headline:

France offers to let companies hire young people on its dime

The notion that "France" has some store of dix-centimes that it can freely dispose of is so perverse. "France" is making no such offer. Some French politicians are proposing borrowing money so that they can bribe some selected French companies to hire "young workers" (like 35 year old "student" Sandra Fluke?) to perform work that would not otherwise be performed and then, after these politicians are safely out of office, the no longer young workers can try to figure out how to pay back the loans. I know! They make the Germans pay for it!!! Why aren't we fool Americaines just half so clever and wise as those sophisticated Francois?

The Washington Post cannot cease publication too soon.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Coming to an Obama Second Term near you...

[BWDog]

And after the employer hires the salary subisidized worker, he'll find himself in the "European employers are especially reluctant to hire young people because restrictive labor laws make it hard for companies to lay off employees" predicament. After the subsidy stops or the worker doesn't work out, what then? Gotcha, I bet.