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These mismatches reflect a lack of mobility of workers and the unemployed but also the lack of employability of a significant part of the labour force, due to an inefficient training system and a large proportion of young people who have no qualifications. The latest PISA results have underlined that inequalities linked to socio-economic background in France are among the highest in all of the OECD.

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Furthermore major issue that faces France's stumbling economy is the huge rigidity of the employment market. French employees enjoy huge amounts of protection of their jobs. For instance, the processes in place to fire French employees are some of the most complicated on earth, making it very difficult for companies to turn over underperforming employees.

On top of this, while most European countries have seen employment protection restrictions lessen in recent years, protections in France have actually increased since the turn of the century, driven in part by high levels of advocacy by workers. Right now, for example, French air traffic workers are striking against plans to relax the 35-hour work week.

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One of the big reasons why France's labour market is lagging is that, simply put, for many unemployed people there's no real incentive to work in a low paid job, this is shown in graphs 4 and 5. Tax burdens on French workers are some of the highest of anywhere in the OECD, approaching 50% for the average worker.

Coupled with the fact that unemployment benefits in the country are higher than the vast majority of world, it makes for an environment where many potential workers see being unemployed as a far more attractive option. That clearly isn't conducive to strong growth. Add to this, the fact that wages in France are unresponsive to changes in unemployment, and it creates a job market where costs are simply too high. Here's HSBC once again:

Putting this all together, the high cost of labour is significantly hampering the competitiveness of the French economy. Indeed, unlike several other countries, France has not significantly curbed the growth in its unit labour costs since 2008, which has led to a loss of competitiveness compared to many of its main trading competitors.

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A further major issue that faces France's stumbling economy is the huge rigidity of the employment market. French employees enjoy huge amounts of protection of their jobs. For instance, the processes in place to fire French employees are some of the most complicated on earth, making it very difficult for companies to turn over underperforming employees.

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Unemployment is a phenomenon that occurs when a person who is actively searching for employment is unable to find work. Unemployment is often used as a measure of the health of the economy. The most frequently measure of unemployment is the unemployment rate, which is the number of unemployed people divided by the number of people in the labor force.

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Unemployment in France has declined more slowly than in most leading European economies, as a gradual recovery in economic growth and job creation is offset by the number of young people entering the labour force every year.

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A graph showing the rate of unemployment every 6 months from 2014-2016

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France Unemployment Rate | 1996-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | Forecast

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The unemployment rate in France dropped to 8.9 percent in the three months to December of 2017 from 9.6 percent in the previous period. It was the lowest jobless rate since the first quarter of 2009.