Jobless Benefits If You Quit? There's Some Logic

Emmanuel Macron swept into the French presidency last spring promising serious changes to the labor market. Neoliberal reformers, the natural constituency for this sort of thing, expressed cautious hope -- with the emphasis on cautious. France’s sclerotic labor regulations have proven amazingly resilient to change, which is why the country’s unemployment rate is pushing 10 percent, compared to 4.1 percent in the U.S., 4.3 percent in the U.K., and 3.7 percent in Germany.

The process of laying out those reforms is now underway, and with a surprising twist: The Wall Street Journal reports that Macron is proposing unemployment benefits for people who quit their jobs, not just those who are forced out.