French Unemployment Hits New Record High - Whose to Blame?

By: Mike_Shedlock

While ECB president Mario Draghi brags his economic policy of negative interest rates is working, I ask for whom?

On April 23, 2015 I noted Spain's Unemployment Rate Increases to 23.7%; 114,300 Jobs Vanish in First Quarter, Public Sector Jobs Rise.

Let's now turn our attention to France.

• December 24, 2014 BBC: French jobless total at new record high
• January 28, 2015 France24: French unemployment hits new record high in December
• March 6, 2014 UPI: Unemployment in France hits 16-year-high; still rising

France Unemployment Rate

Flashback January 27, 2014 Mish: France Unemployment Hits New Record High; Hollande's November Pledge Reviewed

In November, French president Francois Hollande announced he had met his electoral pledge to halt the rise in joblessness by the end of 2013.

No one with any economic sense believed it.

Today in the face of a new record high unemployment rate, Hollande says unemployment has "stabilised".

Whom Do The French Blame?

Via translation from Les Echos, May 2, 2015: Poll shows 75% of French Do Not Expect Improvement in Unemployment until 2017.

Recent unemployment figures reached a new record in March with 3.51 million of job seekers in mainland France without activity. Three quarters of respondents think that unemployment will not decrease by the end of the five year term of Francois Hollande, according to a poll for Odoxa iTELE and Le Parisien published on Friday.

As for the main cause of unemployment, 34% of the French blame "companies that prefer to increase their profits rather than hiring" while 31% blame "government inefficiency". 21% blame "blockages in French society" and 14% "unfavorable economic conditions".

Question for Draghi

I have a question for Mario Draghi: Is this what it means to have your negative interest rate policies "work"?

One cannot blame the ECB for French nonsense. Yet, one can blame the ECB for stupidity in attempting to solve via economic policy, something that cannot possibly be solved that way.

By Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

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Mike Shedlock / Mish is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management . Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction.

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