UPDATE 03.11.07: See second comment in the threads where reader Eric explains from first-hand experience how the French government removes unemployed students from the jobless dole by transforming them into scholars on the school dole, where they cease to be "unemployed".

FRENCH UNEMPLOYMENT RATE FALLS TO 9.1 PERCENT
PARIS June 29, 2006 (AFP)

JOBLESS RATE FALLS TO LOWEST LEVEL IN FOUR YEARS
PARIS July 27, 2006 (AFP)

FRENCH UNEMPLOYMENT RATE FALLS BELOW 9PC
PARIS August 30, 2006 (AFP)

CHIRAC AIMS TO BRING FRANCE'S
UNEMPLOYMENT BELOW 8 PERCENT
PARIS October 10, 2006 (IHT/AP)

FRENCH UNEMPLOYMENT DOWN TO 8.8 PERCENT
PARIS October 30, 2006 (AFP)

FRANCE'S VILLEPIN AIMS TO CUT
UNEMPLOYMENT TO 6 PCT FROM 8 PCT
PARIS January 8, 2007 (Forbes/AFX)

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE STABLE AT 8.6 PERCENT
PARIS February 27, 2007 (AFP)

SOON TO BE COUNTED AMONG THE UNEMPLOYED
But His Legacy Persists

FRANCE'S INSEE SAYS NON-RESPONDENTS HURT UNEMPLOYMENT STATS

PARIS March 8, 2007 (Dow Jones)--The French National Statistics Office Insee [Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques] said Thursday said it delayed the publication of definitive data on 2006 unemployment because of the high number of people who didn't respond to its polls.

"The statistical problems encountered during the inquiry on employment are due to the recurrent weaknesses of data collection proceedings," the office said in a release sent by email.

The rate of non-respondents rose to 21.5% in the third quarter, from 18% in the first three months of 2006, Insee said.

Whoa! Insee published progressively cheery numbers on French employment all last year without a peep about any nonresponse skew.

Monday, the Le Monde newspaper said French unemployment at the end of 2006 was 9.5%, according to International Labour Office standards, and didn't fall to 8.7% as reported by the government.

The report cited a document signed by two unnamed economists at Insee and by an unnamed official at Anpe, the country's unemployment agency.

So, unemployment is stable as of the 2005 rate, making the employment gains in 2006... [Pause.] Zero.

Insee said it's setting up a new counting system to be put in place by the end of the year.

That would be after the elections. [Pause. False start. Another pause.] Best just drop the contentious issue of unemployment from the presidential debate till Insee can provide reliable numbers. Or at least numbers that are not patent political fabrications.

JOBLESS RATE DROPS BUT NUMBERS DON'T ADD UP

PARIS January 31, 2006 (AFP) - Analysts are perplexed, in part because the fall in unemployment is not matched by a rise in the number of jobs being created.

The government explains this by saying that the official INSEE statistics office has difficulty in measuring employment in small companies.

Yet no problem measuring fabulous declines in unemployment.

The amazing thing about a French lie is how little thought, how little effort, goes into it. It is simply pronounced. And when caught out, well, mes amis, then it is traitors and foreign agents among the patriots and France has been betrayed.

PFFT (What is this?): Step up the juju 5 | The enemies of France confound Insee ⅛ | Rayonnement français 0

Here in the unsophisticated USA, our overall unemployment rate is 4.5%.

One factor to consider, a large percentage of employees in France work on one-year contracts without a guarantee of employment once it expires (this contract can be renewed only once before either hiring full-time or saying au revoir). An even large percentage of employees are interns who earn Euro 700 (gross) per month and they perform the functions of people who would ordinarily earn a significant salary. These internships last, typically, 6 months. Should one of these students not have a Masters Degree, they usually don't get paid at all. These students are considered "employed" and artificially drive the unemployment rate down (otherwise hold it steady). Very few of these interns go on to hold a job immediately following their termination.

This folds into the next scheme by the Fromage government. Rather than count these students with Masters degrees as unemployed, they re-up them as students, provide them with cash and enroll them in another Masters program (or Ph D, or whatever). This can go on for years. Of course, they receive money for housing and food as well.

I know this from experience...lived in France the past 3 years and hired many of these students and 1-year contract employees. Only kept one on once her contract expired.

The working poor population in France is astronomical. Most people live paycheck to paycheck without any hope whatsoever of getting ahead. The government even forces companies (private and public companies !!) to provide "vacation checks" to their employees so they can go on vacation. For example, you buy Euro 100 in checks and the company has to match it (matching percentage based on income but just about all hourly employees receive 100%).

Sure sounds like a self-fulfilling prophesy in France. They lie and cheat and drive their own country into the ground...the shame of it is, the French people deny any argument that says this is so.

I like your site, by the way. Good work.

Bonjour ,

Et si l'on parlait de la Nase-A ?

Nase-A [usa]:62 satellites lancés.
ARIANE [FRANCE]: 148 satellites lancés ...

C'est pas bô la bureaucratie yankee , et cela donne de leçons aux autres ...

Tiens un autre sujet de fierté , Bremer est incapable de rendre compte de l' évaporation de 8.8 MILLIARDS de $ en Irak ...
N'empêche les Yanks continuent comme si de rien n' était à faire la morale et à plastronner....

Yo, Frenchie, this is an English speaking site.

Typical of you, though, no Froggie argument would be complete without mention of Iraq. How about the oil for food scandal? Any comments about that?

How about Renault and Peugeot/Citroen investing billions in Iran and helping your enemies fund your own demise? Of course, you see Iran as your friend. Says a lot about your so-called country.

"Most people" living from paycheck to paycheck... Any vaguely similar figures on how many in the US labor facing the same trend?

As for French industies investing in Iran, isn't the US doing the same with communist China, one of Iran's main suppliers of nuke technology and whose army is being dangerously beefed-up? Is China your friend?

Well, we don't know about China being America's friend, but we do know who is China's new best friend (and here).

France is ready to provide necessary technologies that China may need in its development.

Jack,
soaping China
October 24, 2006 (People's Daily/Xinhua)

Another pathetic clueless non sequitar-cum-tu quoque from M. Zmx. Although a professed authority on America, he appears to have no idea what his own government is up to.

No doubt when he makes the discovery he will find the news "unnerving".

DGB

I'm afraid Damian's own expertise on China seems to be only limited to his Kung Fu films collection. So tell us what is France really "up to" in China that is so unnerving to you?

M. Zmx disapproves of American companies cozying up to China, while France has openly declared cozying up to China a cornerstone of French foreign policy. Ah, had he only thought to follow the links provided -- or skim the post with a modicum of care -- he might know something of what France is up to in China.

But as we regularly point, M. Zmx is not a careful reader nor a forensic thinker nor an informed poster nor a wit. He is a donkey. But as uninformed and bumbling and intellectually impoverished as his posts are, that a donkey should post at all -- should manage hoof to keypad -- is not without its strange fascination.

M. Zmx is also an amateur clairvoyant, here pretending now to know what comprises our video library. We can only suggest he not give up his day job. If he is fortunate enough to have a day job. Or an anytime-of-day job.

DGB

M. Zmx disapproves of American companies cozying up to China

I do? It seems to me it's the other way around if you read your own links. Damian doesn't like to be rebuked. Instead, he counter argues by shifting the blame on others, putting words in their mouth as a puerile attempt to win at all cost while avoiding the question. How boring.

As for my "day job" (I love my job), at least I do not have have to sit around on my ass all day playing a bigoted lackey with false pretenses of world affairs expertise, pleasuring yourself (I'm being polite here) each some juicy headline regarding France comes across your computer screen after some exhaustive research.

He is a donkey

You are a joke. And not a very good one.

How to answer to the polite puerility of M. Zmx’s imagination? How brave for the sake of his schoolyard cacozelia to let slip his use of job time to imagine us before a computer. Apparently this voyeurism contributes to his love of job in some way he does not – mercifully -- detail here.

However, he does want us to know that his ass is unemployed while he himself is employed writing his posts – an arrangement, based on the quality of the posts, one might have guessed was the reverse.
And though he never tires of playing the donkey, he declares he is not “a bigoted lackey with false pretenses of world affairs expertise”. No. He is a bigoted lackey with genuine pretenses of world affairs expertise – and he has the posts to prove it.

Oh, we also learn we are not a very good joke. Ah, but M. Zmx, he is a most excellent joke for those with a taste for polite puerility and stupid Frenchmen.

DGB