OECD data paint gloomy picture for protesting French youth
Whether in terms of the labour market, education or quality of life, a broad range of data published by the OECD paints a gloomy picture for the prospects facing French youth as they demonstrate en masse against the government's new youth jobs contract.
Drawing on classic indicators such as gross domestic product as well as less common indexes, the data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) highlights the difficulties that France faces as it struggles to adapt to tough realities.
The Paris-based OECD paints this unflattering portrait in its 2006 Factbook of 150 indicators for its 30 members, which was presented in Brussels on Tuesday.
For example, the report's inactivity indicator puts France third from the bottom of the league, ahead of only Turkey and Slovakia, with 14.8 percent of the country's youth considered to be neither employed nor at school.
"If young people are not in employment and not at school, there are good reasons to be concerned about their current well-being and their future prospects," the study said.
Other data in the study confirm already widely reported statistics, such as the French employment rate for people aged 15-24. Within the OCED only Hungary, Luxembourg and Poland have a worse jobless rate.
In general, most of the figures for the French labour market ring alarm bells.
The report was made public at the Brussels-based Lisbon Council, a think-tank in favour of reform, on the day that more than one million people demonstrated across France against the government's youth job law.
The new law is designed to encourage companies to hire people aged under 26 but it also allows them to terminate these young employees' contracts without justification at any time during the first two years.
The increasingly embattled government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin argues that the reform is necessary to encourage employers to hire more youths and tackle stubbornly high unemployment.
Unions and students say it will deprive young people and first-time employees of job security.
The main author of the OECD report, chief statician Enrico Giovannini, said the absence of a clear picture of the challenges facing France made it all the more difficult to explain the need for reform.
"There is a correlation between knowledge and the ability of people to accept reform," he stressed.
"If you cannot make people understand the changes affecting them, there is no way a consensus for reform can be built," Giovannini added.
"Educated people in France were told in the past that they were going to be treated by the market in a way that is very different from the unskilled," he said. "The change is that this is not going to be the case any more.
There has been little increase since 1991 in the number of people with secondary qualifications in France and the country has fallen further behind the leaders -- Canada, the Nordic countries and the United States.
Seeking to uncover deep trends in society and the economy, the OECD looked at data covering the last 10 or 15 years and sometimes more.
"Debate is too much focused on the last months' data, so that people tend to lose the long-term perspective," Giovannini said.
Quality of life indicators such as life expectancy and the number of obese people, where France traditionally has had a good showing, also put the country in the middle of the pack.
Even though the French have some of the shortest working hours in the developed world, there is little sign that they are enjoying it, since household spending on leisure and culture remains mediocre.
The study also debunks some accepted truths, such as the idea that globalisation has made inequality worse.
"The safest conclusion is that there was little or no change" since the 1980s and inequality levels had even decreased in Austria, Denmark and France, the study found.
feeds.bignewsnetwork.com . . .
Whether in terms of the labour market, education or quality of life, a broad range of data published by the OECD paints a gloomy picture for the prospects facing French youth as they demonstrate en masse against the government's new youth jobs contract.
Drawing on classic indicators such as gross domestic product as well as less common indexes, the data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) highlights the difficulties that France faces as it struggles to adapt to tough realities.
The Paris-based OECD paints this unflattering portrait in its 2006 Factbook of 150 indicators for its 30 members, which was presented in Brussels on Tuesday.
For example, the report's inactivity indicator puts France third from the bottom of the league, ahead of only Turkey and Slovakia, with 14.8 percent of the country's youth considered to be neither employed nor at school.
"If young people are not in employment and not at school, there are good reasons to be concerned about their current well-being and their future prospects," the study said.
Other data in the study confirm already widely reported statistics, such as the French employment rate for people aged 15-24. Within the OCED only Hungary, Luxembourg and Poland have a worse jobless rate.
In general, most of the figures for the French labour market ring alarm bells.
The report was made public at the Brussels-based Lisbon Council, a think-tank in favour of reform, on the day that more than one million people demonstrated across France against the government's youth job law.
The new law is designed to encourage companies to hire people aged under 26 but it also allows them to terminate these young employees' contracts without justification at any time during the first two years.
The increasingly embattled government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin argues that the reform is necessary to encourage employers to hire more youths and tackle stubbornly high unemployment.
Unions and students say it will deprive young people and first-time employees of job security.
The main author of the OECD report, chief statician Enrico Giovannini, said the absence of a clear picture of the challenges facing France made it all the more difficult to explain the need for reform.
"There is a correlation between knowledge and the ability of people to accept reform," he stressed.
"If you cannot make people understand the changes affecting them, there is no way a consensus for reform can be built," Giovannini added.
"Educated people in France were told in the past that they were going to be treated by the market in a way that is very different from the unskilled," he said. "The change is that this is not going to be the case any more.
There has been little increase since 1991 in the number of people with secondary qualifications in France and the country has fallen further behind the leaders -- Canada, the Nordic countries and the United States.
Seeking to uncover deep trends in society and the economy, the OECD looked at data covering the last 10 or 15 years and sometimes more.
"Debate is too much focused on the last months' data, so that people tend to lose the long-term perspective," Giovannini said.
Quality of life indicators such as life expectancy and the number of obese people, where France traditionally has had a good showing, also put the country in the middle of the pack.
Even though the French have some of the shortest working hours in the developed world, there is little sign that they are enjoying it, since household spending on leisure and culture remains mediocre.
The study also debunks some accepted truths, such as the idea that globalisation has made inequality worse.
"The safest conclusion is that there was little or no change" since the 1980s and inequality levels had even decreased in Austria, Denmark and France, the study found.
feeds.bignewsnetwork.com . . .
