US unemployment levels may be bad right now, but lookie at this:

[Deja Q]

http://www.indexmundi.com/france/unemployment_rate.html

France: 10.1%

French population:
60,656,178 (July 2005 est.)
6,126,273 out of work.

http://www.indexmundi.com/united_states/unemployment_rate.html
US: 5.5% (est 2004)

US population:
295,734,134 (July 2005 est.)

16,265,377 mil out of work


US unemployment is driven by corporate greed (offshoring, downsizing, bad workers, et al). Why is France's unemployment so high, in terms of populace percentage?

[rzemanfl]

1. Because there is no word in French for entrepreneur? That's

what * thinks.

[Berserker]

9. Entrepreneur

is a French word
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneur
on edit
Ok after reading your post a few tims rzemanfl I get what you mean.

[rzemanfl]

16. Bush actually said there was no word in French for entrepreneur.

That's what I meant.

[MadisonProgressive]

23. NO WAY!

I think he's a melon head, but NOBODY with a Ivy league education (even a D+) could make such an inane comment! Are you SURE?????

[rzemanfl]

31. Here's what the internets say:

"According to Shirley Williams (the Baroness Williams of Crosby), British Prime Minister Tony Blair once related a story about George W. Bush:
After a discussion about economics with Blair and French President Jacques Chirac, Bush allegedly turned to Blair and remarked, "The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for 'entrepreneur.'"

http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=15910

But see: http://www.snopes.com/quotes/bush.htm

"Lloyd Grove of The Washington Post was unable to reach Baroness Williams to gain her confirmation of the tale, but he did receive a call from Alastair Campbell, Blair's director of communications and strategy. "I can tell you that the prime minister never heard George Bush say that, and he certainly never told Shirley Williams that President Bush did say it," Campbell told The Post. "If she put this in a speech, it must have been a joke."

So if you believe the British equivalent of Scott McClellan, this is an urban legend. Of course Blair would certainly admit telling a story that makes Bush look like a moron, honest guy that he is. The Washington Post was "unable to reach the source" and has been known to bend the truth for the shrub-so form your own opinion.

I assume you are in Mad City. I was there last week.

[MadisonProgressive]

34. Thanks, that's very interesting

Yes, born and raised in Madtown. What brought you here?

[rzemanfl]

37. Daughter and her husband live there. I graduated from UW law

school, she and her husband are both UW grads too.

[MadisonProgressive]

38. Bully for you!!

Next time you're in town, PM me and I'll meet you for a beer at the rathskeller.

[rzemanfl]

15. Bush actually said the that. The moron... n/t

[radwriter0555]

26. BUT in france, even without a job, you have a HOME, FOOD, EDUCATION,

HEALTH CARE and dignity.

You aren't thrown out on the street, and you aren't treated like a criminal.

You and your family are cared for and appreciated, no matter what your walk of life.

THAT'S the difference between being unemployed in bush's America, and being unemployed in France.

[Autonomy]

2. self-delete

[bridgit]

3. unemployment will be nudging back up soon after...

summer jobs & state fairs shut down, maybe softened by x-mas inventory/retail work, we'll see if republicans take note when the job climate heads seasonally the other way...my sense is that they will not

[radwriter0555]

27. And, US numbers are not pulled from the FICO reports, they're pulled from

telephone & "EDI" polling/sampling.

That's right. US unemployment rates are based on telephone surveys asking a few certain companies if they're hiring or firing, or if they're cutting back or increasing their work force.

http://www.bls.gov/web/cestn1.htm


The FICO reports are kept top, top secret.

[bridgit]

30. my sense is certainly that they are held top-top secret...

in that our markets are so brittle that they cannot sustain the slightest of shock. employment numbers have caused selling frenzy in the past so we get shit numbers & shit headlines such as "new orleans dodged a bullet"

[ISUGRADIA]

4. European unemployement is always higher than US

US only counts those actively seeking employement and some other criteria I cannot remember which makes the figure a few points lower than treu unemployement.

[bridgit]

6. that's correct, ours is artificially low after 'we' remove...

people who've been unable to find long term employment for instance

[tsuki]

7. If your unemployment benefits have not run out. Our

unemployment, non-seasonally adjusted, is probably much higher than 10%.

[Benhurst]

10. You're right, ISUGRADIA. Since there is little or no safety

net, the unemployed are always undercounted in BushAmerica, the land of root, hog, or die.

[tritsofme]

11. Look at European and international UE rates when US methods are applied:

http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1069&context=key_workplace

It is still markedly higher in countries like France or Germany.

[Cleita]

17. Bingo.

We only count those who are collecting unemployment, which doesn't cover everyone who is out of work and not able to collect unemployment. So our figures would be much higher if there was a truer count of those people who are actively seeking work but haven't been able to find anything.

[ISUGRADIA]

25. Thanks to you and others who clarified my initial point

there are a lot of people who have been unemployed for years who cannot get work in their field or are considered "overqualified". And even more who are underemployed, people with master's degrees making $7, 8 an hour who are "employed" under federal standards.

[natrat]

5. real us unemployment 10-12 %

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

33. Exactly. The figures used here are based on people who are receiving

unemployment benefits. Once those benefits run out, those people (statitistics)fall of the face of the earth.....

[Coyote_Bandit]

8. The US Unemployment Numbers

are understated. They do not include, for example, the underemployed, those who work part-time but desire full-time work, those who work multiple jobs, and those who wish to enter the workforce such as new graduates. Also, long-term unemployed folks are not accurately accounted for in the stats. A better figure to look at for comparison purposes is the number of people in the labor force.

Not sure how the French compute their unemployment stats. But the comparison between US and French stats is meaningless unless the stats are both calculated in the same manner. It is like comparing apples and oranges.

[tritsofme]

12. See post 11

For international UE rates conducted using US methods.

[Greyhound]

14. There really can't be an accurate comparison. The systems are too

disparate. For example, here we force our 'consumers' to take any POS job that comes along, so you have people that lost a $80K job and have to take a $25K entry level McJob, or lose their meager unemployment check. Not so in France.

[serryjw]

21. Add to that number

all the baby boomer 'consultants' that have given up ever being employed for more than $10/hour

[Greyhound]

13. France and other "socialist" States, report pretty accurate numbers

because they know how many people are getting checks. Here they fuck with the numbers to make themselves look better.

[Gloria]

18. Because they have not adopted unfettered capitalism...Germany is

in the same position. As explained today on the BBC, Schroder has tried for some reform but his party swings to the left and won't back him. Merkel is preaching a fast turnover to a freer business model.

This is all supposed to create jobs. But, I wonder, how? They just let all those Chineses textiles into Europe after all.... clothing manufacturing has been hit in a lot of countries in Europe like Romania where labor is cheaper, but not cheap enough. So, what industries are going to suddenly burgeon if China is there??

[POAS]

19. Question

Doesn't the US also include active duty service members as part of the "employed" work force? I'm fairly certain they were not counted as part of the work force before Reagan.

[yankeedem]

20. I read somewhere

that in Europe, it is a lot harder to find a job, but it is also much harder to lose a job, because the government makes it very hard to close plants, etc.

Food for thought, anyway.

[enid602]

22. unemployment

Like the US, France only counts those who are on unemployment benefits. Theirs last for years, however, whereas our people on unemployment drop off the unemployed figure after 6 mos.

[JNelson6563]

24. Considering how dishonest the US numbers are

it's easy to make it seem like we are so much better off.

Julie

[leftofthedial]

28. because in France, they actually count the unemployed

here we count about one in four.

[nonconformist]

29. US numbers only include those receiving unemployment compensation

I can attest I know of many, many people - including my own husband - that have been unemployed anywhere from weeks to months in the last few years that would not be included in those stats. Some have run out of benefits (4/6 months) without finding a job and are simply dropped off the radar. Some people are unable to collect, for whatever reason. And sometimes the employers contest the filing, and even if they don't have grounds, it ties up benefits for many months (if you get it at all).

[Laughing Mirror]

32. The CIA's numbers do not jibe with those of Le Monde August 30 2005

Unemployment rate in France down to 9.9%, with 2,423,300 out of work. Nowhere near the figure you cite of 6,126,273.

I did not check population figures given. Probably fantasy too.

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,39-25586890@7-37,0.html

France/chômage: baisse de 1% en juillet, taux à 9,9% (ministère)
AFP 30.08.05 | 22h02

Le nombre de demandeurs d'emplois a reculé de 1% en juillet en France (-25.000), le taux de chômage au sens du Bureau international du travail (BIT) passant, à 9,9%, au-dessous de la barre des 10% de la population active, selon des chiffres du ministère du Travail publiés mardi.

Il s'agit de la quatrième baisse consécutive du chômage en France, après un recul de 0,1% en avril, 0,1% en mai, et 1,4% en juin.

Le nombre de chômeurs s'établit désormais à 2.423.300 personnes.

[Seansky]

35. in addition to the comment about European unemployment being hired

than the US, we should add to that the number of small business that go bankrupt every year (this isn't considered in any of the indexes for unemployment that I have seen) Those tend to be ind. w/o work...What I have seen in CO is that the number of self-employed people opening their own small business is growing so rapidly because they can't find jobs and have run out of unemployment benefits. The indexes do not reflect everything. We also have large number of immigrants that can't be tracked in these indexes, but that do use the taxpayer services (no that I am necessarily against the humanity aspect of providing those services) which is one of the reasons for unemployment being tracked...

[stevietheman]

36. U.S. numbers are a fraud--they exclude long-term unemployed. n/t

n/t