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SUMMARY:

-talks about GDP, France's unemployment rate, investments from other countries, spending

Key topics: GDP, Unemployment, Investment Rate

Jobs (Unemployment)

-most of the jobs created in Hollande's term (2012-2017) were part-time jobs (mostly temporary eg only one month jobs)

-youth unemployment is close to double that of US

-unemployment has risen for vulnerable groups (youths, low skilled, immigrants)
- Unemployment rate has been very high during the 5 years and the French president did not solve the issue correctly.
- Despite introducing polices like making hiring and firing easier, unemployment rate is still relatively high.
- This is not very ideal as people will be out of job very easily despite being hired for only a short period of time.
- Hence, even if you have a job, it will not be a permanent job since most of the contracts are shorter than a month, which ultimately leads the unemployment rate to be high.
- However, he actually helped the unemployed workers to be skilled by sending them for trainings that might help them in search of the existing jobs.
- As seen from the graphs, France’s unemployment rate is the highest among the EU countries although the people who are undergoing training increases sharply.
- In conclusion, even though the French president came up with ways to solve the unemployment issue, it is not enough to lower down the unemployment rate, resulting in a very high unemployment rate eventually.

Possible Causes for Unemployment
-some people may not be eager to find jobs because France is still a welfare state
-hence the state provides for citizens especially those who need financial help through grants, pensions, subsidies and other benefits
-people are underemployed and do not have stable jobs
-86.4% (majority) of total hiring was into temporary jobs, and 80% of such contracts were shorter than one month
-long-term unemployment is still high, eg 43% of the unemployed have been without jobs for more than a year

Who Is Most Affected
-France’s youth unemployment rate is approximately twice of UK’s and is still rising
-in contrast with a decline in most developed economies
-foreigners’ and those with lower levels of education as compared to others also has a rising unemployment rate

Policies to help improve employment
-introduced tax credits to reduce labour costs
-introduced a bill that made hiring and firing easier.
-he also increased training opportunities and incentives to return to work.

Improvements

-unemployment figures have only improved by a little bit over the past year
-however, data shows that policies which encourage more jobseekers into training have had some success.

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After five years in office, French president François Hollande will leave the Élysée palace this May as the most unpopular president in recent French history. His poor standing is in part a response to his failure to deliver on promises to revive the economy, curb unemployment and rein in public spending.

But is Mr Hollande's economic legacy as dire as his ratings slump would suggest? The charts below give a measure of the economic and social challenges France and its next leader are facing.

Slow but steady growth

The winner of this year's election will inherit an economy that has been growing slowly but steadily since the 2008 financial crisis. At the start of his presidency in 2012, Mr Hollande was optimistic France would fully recover from the downturn. However, as the chart below shows, despite modest growth the country has underperformed relative to the likes of Germany, the UK and the US.

Towards the end of Mr Hollande's term things began to pick up. Growth last year reached 1.1 per cent, the fastest pace during his tenure - though it still fell well below the EU average of 1.8 per cent. In the first quarter of 2017, growth slowed to 0.3 per cent compared with the previous quarter, missing analysts' forecasts.

More jobs, mostly temporary

The labour market is a politically charged issue. In 2012, Mr Hollande was voted in on a pledge to boost job opportunities at a time when unemployment was rising.

During his time in office, unemployment continued to creep up to a high of more than 10 per cent, prompting the president - late in his tenure - to take more decisive steps to tackle what he labelled an "economic emergency". Having already introduced tax credits to reduce labour costs, he bypassed parliament in 2016 to force through a jobs bill that made hiring and firing easier. While protecting the country's divisive 35-hour work week, he also increased training opportunities and incentives to return to work.

These measures have just begun to bear fruit: unemployment figures have shown only marginal improvements over the past year, though data show that policies encouraging more jobseekers into training have had some success.

But Mr Hollande's original proposals - some of which caused a backlash on the left - were watered down.

The reforms have so far failed to break France's two-tier labour market. Last year, 86.4 per cent of total hiring was into temporary jobs - and of those, 80 per cent were for contracts shorter than one month. Meanwhile, long-term unemployment remains stubbornly high: around 43 per cent of the unemployed in France have been without a job for more than a year, nearly the highest proportion since records began in 2003.

Among the most vulnerable are young people, immigrants and the low-skilled. France's youth unemployment rate is roughly double that of the UK and continues to rise - in contrast with a decline in most advanced economies. The story is similar for foreigners and those with lower levels of education.

Spending still high

In its 2015 report on the French economy, the OECD concluded: "The fiscal situation is weak, with a chronic deficit, considerable government spending, correspondingly high taxes and rising public debt."

Mr Hollande was forced to accept greater austerity as his term wore on, proposing public spending cuts and vowing to streamline a state machinery he deemed "too heavy, too slow, too costly".

But France still has one of the highest public spending ratios among advanced countries - at 57 per cent of GDP. Within that, health, social and pensions expenditure as a share of GDP remain comparatively high and have risen since 2012. Combined with slow economic growth, France's debt burden has continued to grow.

The fiscal deficit has shrunk under Mr Hollande. This was largely a result of declining interest rates and cuts in public investment, but higher tax revenues also helped.

As there is little room for further tax rises, improvement in public finances under a future president would mean more spending cuts - a message echoed recently by the European Commission.

Corporate taxes eased

Despite attempts at simplification, French companies "are still faced with a high regulatory burden and fast-changing legislation", according to a recent European Commission report.

While consumption taxes are low, the high tax burden on French business is a potential barrier to investment and company growth. Throughout his term, Mr Hollande has taken small but significant steps to improve this, introducing tax breaks and bringing down the tax wedge - taxes as a percentage of labour costs - by several percentage points.

More broadly, France also adopted the so-called Macron law in 2015, designed to boost competition by allowing shops to stay open for longer, for example.

Still, the relative picture is telling. At 48 per cent, the labour tax wedge was the fifth highest in the OECD in 2015 and French corporation tax remains the highest in Europe.

France's recent economic growth has been sustained by consumption rather than investment, with the latter not yet reaching the pre-crisis peak. Investment did return to growth last year, but from a low base.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. All rights reserved. You may share using our article tools. Please don't copy articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

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The economy that France's next president will inherit

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After five years in office, French president François Hollande will leave the Élysée palace this May as the most unpopular president in recent French history. His poor standing is in part a response to his failure to deliver on promises to revive the economy, curb unemployment and rein in public spending.

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2nd ARTICLE - shows France GDP, Unemployment Rate, gov. debt, income inequality and social spending 

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2nd ARTICLE - shows France GDP, Unemployment Rate, gov. debt, income inequality and social spending 

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-Although France's GDP is increasing but it is still lower than other countries like U.S and Netherlands.
-This results in France's unemployment rate to be higher than the other countries.
-France has an unemployment rate of about 10% which is more than double of unemployment rate in Germany and U.S.
-24% of youth aged 15 to 24 face unemployment.
- The reason for youths facing high unemployment rate is that France do not have a close relationship between education and work, many high school leavers do not have any work experience. Furthermore, the unemployment rate of people with a secondary level education is almost twice as high as degree holders. However, some with high level of education could not even find a job.
- Therefore, having less job-related experience cause youths to be more vulnerable and decrease their chances of being employed, since many companies demand much on having previous work experiences.
- Hence, youths may be the last to be employed ---- often on temporary work contract, but the first to be laid off during an economic downturn since they have lower job protection due to their inexperience and a temporary work basis. Many employers also sack the newest hired first.
-France government debt as % of GDP has increased 32% over 10 years.
-Even though France economy is quite weak, but it's income distribution is quite even and the risk of it's citizens suffering from poverty is lower than the other countries such as U.K and U.S.
-France spends more on social and welfare than many other countries with bigger economies. Nearly one-third of France's GDP goes to welfare.
- The generous spending of France on social and welfare caused higher budget deficits.
- The healthcare system is in desperate need of more cash.
- As there is a rapid growth in ageing population, now there are only 4 workers for every 1 retiree compared to previously where there are 7 workers to 1 retiree. Therefore, the spendings on healthcare and pensions are not sustainable and reforms need to be made.

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France is stuck in a major rut.

Europe's third biggest economyhas suffered years of anemic growth, high unemployment and budget deficits, while neighbors such as Germany and the U.K. have enjoyed a stronger recovery from the global financial crisis.

The country's economic malaise is a major issue in presidential elections.

Before voting began Sunday,the contest had narrowed to a four-way race between candidates from across the political spectrum. Two of them -- far right politician Marine Le Pen and socialist Jean-Luc Melenchon proposed radical ideas on how to improve the economy. Both oppose free trade agreements and are highly critical of the euro.

Melenchon crashed out in Sunday's vote but Le Pen came second and now faces centrist reformer Emmanuel Macron in the run-off. But will either of them have the right prescription to cure France?

Related: Macron-Le Pen face-off: EU supporter vs economic nationalist

After years of slow growth, the country's GDP figures are finally turning higher. But they remain at very low levels.

The French economy expanded by 1.2% in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund. The two larger economies in Europe -- Germany and the U.K. -- posted growth of 1.8% over the same period.

The IMF predicts growth of just 1.4% for France in 2017, one of the weakest rates in the EU.

Europe's lost generation: Young, educated and unemployed

France is also struggling to bring down its unemployment rate, which stands at roughly 10%. That's higher than the eurozone average and more than double the level of joblessness in Germany and Britain.

The unemployment problem is even worse for young people: 24% of those between the ages of 15 and 24 don't have a job.

Government debt, meanwhile, has ballooned to almost 90% of GDP, up from just 58% a decade ago.

There are a few bright spots, however. France has relatively low income inequality and fewer of its citizens are at risk of poverty than in Germany or the U.K.

The percentage of GDP that the government spends on social programs and welfare is much higher in France than other major economies.

The generous welfare system has led to higher budget deficits, however, and the French healthcare system is in desperate need of more cash. The IMF has called for economic reforms to bring public spending under control.

CNNMoney (London) First published April 19, 2017: 8:59 AM ET

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France is the weakest of Europe's big 3 economies

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Europe's third biggest economyhas suffered years of anemic growth, high unemployment and budget deficits, while neighbors such as Germany and the U.K. have enjoyed a stronger recovery from the global financial crisis. The country's economic malaise is a major issue in presidential elections.

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Salut Team France!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Some questions for your to think about:
1st Article
- Which is/are the key sector(s) as mentioned in the article?
- How would positive sentiments about the election affect the economy?
- Use the expenditure method of GDP to analyse the relevant components. No hypothetical analysis please.
2nd Article
- Not much prelim analysis here.
- Find out further why the youths are facing high levels of unemployment.
- Examine the impact of social program and such spending on the nation.
3rd Article
-  This article is good. Quite a bit to talk about.
Questions:
- corporate and income tax were mentioned. Your comments on the impact of the mentioned changes on the economy.
- What are the other policies mentioned to help improve the employment?
- What could be the possible cause for long term unemployment in France? Why are people not eager to find jobs?
- Which component(s) of the GDP was mentioned as being important?

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-each group shall select a maximum of 3 news articles that are related to macroeconomics concepts taught so far (e.g. GDP, Unemployment, Inflation, Keynesian Model).
-the selected article(s) must be dated after 31 Jan 2017.
-please ensure that the chosen article(s) encompasses at least THREE topics with distinct economic issues that you could do your analysis on.

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GDP:

-France was able to rise from its downturn in real GDP in 2009

-however, it still underperformed and had lower average growth than most of the EU

Expenditure
-spending is still high (expenditure approach)
-France still has one of the highest public spending ratios among advanced countries - at 57% of GDP
-health, social and pensions expenditure as a share of GDP remain high, and is still rising
- France has not been doing well in terms of economy for the past few years.
- Despite things starting to get well in the later part, it is still not enough as it is still below the EU average of 1.8 per cent.
- Even though France’s public spending is the highest, it is a lot lesser than the previous years.
- The president managed to spend within the amount of income and not exceed it which is important as the country will be bankrupt soon if this does not stop.
- As seen from the graphs, France is the highest for GDP which is not surprising given the fact that they actually spend more than they should.
- Since they spend more than they should, they will not have enough income earned previously to spend, so they borrowed a huge sum of money which resulted in the high percentage under the debt chart.
- Nonetheless, France did well in reducing the amount they spend which resulted in the fiscal balance line to go up under the negative segment.
-with high expenditure, combined with slow economic growth, France’s debt burden has continued to grow
-high tax burden on French businesses may be an obstacle for growth and investment
-recent economic growth has been due to consumption rather than investment
-however, investments did grow, but at a lower pace
- In conclusion, although France’s spending is still high, the president actually did help to reduce the amount of spending which is a good thing.

To improve
-government has taken steps to improve this such as introducing tax breaks
-has introduced law (Macron Law) which is designed to help competitiveness eg allowing shops to stay open longer

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The main reason for the unemployment rate of youths is the fact that the owners of businesses that are hiring them font view them as valuable workers to keep around. they believe that experience is one of the main deciding factors of whether they want to be hired or not. even if they are hired, during a period of economic downturn, they will be forced to fire some workers to reduce the expenditure. this is a good example of cyclical unemployment. since the young inexperienced workers are less valuable to keep around compared to older experienced workers, the young workers are first inline to be fired which largely contributes to the unemployment rate. This shows that some of the unemployment in France is cyclical unemployment which is undesirable in a country aiming to make their unemployment rate as low as possible.

social spending may not exactly be 100% positive to the unemployment rate. social spending include unemployment benefits. if the unemployment benefits are very high as stated, some people may just be too lazy to find work and just depend on the benefits instead. this will not give them motivation to go and search for a job like they are meant to do, but instead cause them to just not look for a job, causing the unemployment rate to stay high. However, high social spending can also lower the unemployment rate as it also includes programs the government pays for that will allow the youths and inexperienced to be more well trained which will increase their employable and cause the unemployment rate to be lowered. this shows that the high social spending may be France's attempt to solve The problem of unemployment and it is working but there are a few secondary effects.(the people living off the benefits).

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key ideas in this article: France's fluctuations in GDP, unemployment rate,  labor force amount and participation rate and ranking in world economy.

Background: In the period of May 2017 , France was undergoing a presidency election with Le Pen and Macron both running for the position. Many investors were eyeing the election closely and cheering Macron on to victory as he was more aligned with economics and markets .
If Le Pen took the position however,  the France economy would be at stake as her policy dictated pulling out the Euro currency and enforcing major restrictions on immigration and free movement across borders. Hence, with Le Pen as president, investing in France would be an unfavorable prospect for foreign investors.
With positive sentiments about the election,  investments would pick up despite the nation's disposable income.

The article explains the significance of France's economy

1. France is the second most significant nation in the European region and a powerful utilizer of the Euro currency. Any blow to the France economy would take the same direct impact on the currency,

2. France has a very strong and sound economy, this is evident in France's GDP accounting for 14.3% of the GDP for the whole European region. Its economy has also seen a gradual increase in GDP over the years, currently making it the 11th largest economy in the year.
- France is also a very populated nation, with ranking of 22nd highest most populated in the world.

3. France's total labor force in 2016 also was 22nd on the world.

Factors which contributed to France's GDP

The growth in France's services sector accounts (which accounted for 78% of France's GDP) for most of their economical success, deriving the third largest income in the world from Tourism. Using the expenditure approach, this shows that France's GDP is heavily dependent on government investment in goods and services due to the demand from tourism. Hence we can conclude that tourism is the most prominent sector of France's economy.

Talking what France has not done so well on in terms of unemployment rate, public finance and and taxes:

1. Despite the growth in GDP and economy, France has seen an increase in overall unemployment rate over the years. However, youth unemployment specifically, saw a decline.

2. France's budget deficit rose over the years despite the increase in GDP due to high spending.

3. France's income tax burden was also very high, with some of the rates at 40% high,

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Western financial markets got a major boost on Monday morning. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up over 1% (200+ points), the CAC 40 in France was up 4.5% (230 points), the DAX in Germany was up 3.1% (375 points) and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was even up 1.9% (134 points). What investors are cheering is that Macron topped Le Pen in the French elections, with a coalition expected to give Macron a formal victory next month.

The first thing to consider is that the financial markets are still global, facilitated by international trade, multinational corporations, tourism and multinational banking - oh, and of course more than a few international alliances. The first thing that U.S. investors will want to consider is that if Le Pen really has no chance of victory then there is very little threat to France's government staying in the European Union. Macron was also deemed by the international media pundits as more friendly to economics and the markets.

Many U.S. investors might think that they do not have to care about France. For better or worse, that just isn't the case. 24/7 Wall St. has decided to show why France's economy matters, by the numbers. Some outside market data was used, but the primary economic source used here has been the CIA World Factbook.

First and foremost, France is the second most important nation to the EU (behind only Germany) and to the formal euro currency. After the U.K. Brexit, any threat to France's future in the euro would have been a potential killer for the united euro currency, as Germany might not be able (nor want to) be the only economic lynchpin for the euro.

The CIA World Factbook shows France's gross domestic product (GDP) on a purchasing power parity basis (and in 2016 dollars) as $2.737 trillion in 2016. When compared to the EU as a whole, that is estimated as 14.3% of $19.18 trillion. Germany, the cornerstone of the EU, was projected to have a 2016 GDP of $3.979 trillion.

France's estimated $2.737 trillion GDP in 2016 is up from $2.701 trillion in 2015 and up from $2.667 trillion in 2014. France is ranked at the 11th largest economy in the world by GDP, but that would be the 10th largest if you do not count the EU as a whole. That $2.737 trillion GDP in 2016 was only marginally behind the United Kingdom's $2.788 trillion (just 1.8% less). France's GDP in 2016 was also projected to be one place above Mexico's $2.307 trillion (18.6% higher) and two places above Italy's $2.221 trillion (23.2% higher).

On a population basis, France's 66.8 million people ranks as being the 22nd highest. The EU's total population is roughly 514 million. Germany's population is 80.7 million and the United Kingdom has 64.4 million people.

France's total labor force in 2016 was projected to be 30.48 million. That ranks 22nd in the world. The EU as a whole had a projected total labor force of 232.9 million people, and France's 30.48 million people in the labor force compared to Germany's 45.3 million people and the U.K.'s 33.17 million people.

France's economy is diverse and not dependent on just one sector, although its services sectors as a whole accounts for more than 78% of total GDP. Still, with over 84 million foreign tourists each year, France is considered to be the most visited country in the world. France also was shown to derive the third largest income in the world from tourism.

Other aspects of France's economy are around unemployment, public finances, taxes and more, according to the CIA World Factbook:

The unemployment rate (including overseas territories) increased from 7.8% in 2008 to 9.9% in the fourth quarter of 2014. Youth unemployment in metropolitan France decreased from a high of 25.4% in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 24.3% in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Lower-than-expected growth and high spending have strained France's public finances. The budget deficit rose sharply from 3.3% of GDP in 2008 to 7.5% of GDP in 2009 before improving to 4% of GDP in 2014 and 2015, while France's public debt rose from 68% of GDP to more than 98% in 2015, and may hit 100% in 2016.

France's tax burden remains well above the EU average and income tax cuts over the past decade are being partly reversed, particularly for higher earners. The top rate of income tax is 41%.

Whether U.S. investors like it or not, France matters in the global economy.

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Why France's Economy Matters So Much: France by the Numbers

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Western financial markets got a major boost on Monday morning. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up over 1% (200+ points), the CAC 40 in France was up 4.5% (230 points), the DAX in Germany was up 3.1% (375 points) and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was even up 1.9% (134 points).