A Skills Mismatch Makes French Unemployment Worse

Clara Gaymard, the head of General Electric’s French unit, has searched in vain for workers for a factory that makes valves for the oil and nuclear industries in Condé-sur-Noireau in western France. “The plant has 360 employees, 100 of whom will retire in the next four to five years, and we can’t find welders and cutters to replace them,” she says.

Employers in the U.S. complain they can’t find qualified workers. As GE’s experience in France shows, the problem is not unique to American industry. While French jobless claims rose to 2.92 million, or 10 percent of the working-age population, at the end of May, a survey released by Pôle Emploi, the government employment agency, showed that about 43 percent of French companies were unable to recruit the workers they need; that’s up five percentage points from a year earlier. In some industries, two thirds of the companies encountered difficulties hiring.