From Dean Baker: http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/does-france-s-economy-need-to-be-renewed http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/does-france-s-economy-n...

From Dean Baker: http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/does-france-s-economy-need-to-be-renewed http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/does-france-s-economy-n... " For prime-age workers (ages 25 to 54), according to the OECD, France's employment rate is actually slightly higher than in the United States, 80.4 percent in France, compared to 79.3 percent in the United States." https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=36324 https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=36324 Unemployement rate 25-54 year old is 8.1% in France and 3.3% in the USA. So less than half the "unemployment rate" for less people working relative to this population. A few decades worth of "inactivity" rise explaining this result (in french but graph subtitles in english): http://guerby.org/blog/index.php/2010/01/31/211-larry-summers-lit-mon-blog http://guerby.org/blog/index.php/2010/01/31/211-larry-summer... Ask your friend studying economics wether they know this data point or not. :)