Pave: Hyped Economy V

Le jour 210 de Sarko

FRENCH JOBLESS RATE FALLS TO 7.9 PERCENT IN THIRD QUARTER
Fall Due To High Unemployment In France For More Than A Decade

We must jump in here. The AFP sub-headline makes no sense. How is a persistent trend of high unemployment the cause of a lower jobless rate? A persistent trend is predictive of more of the same. In any case, it is not causal. Nowhere does the AFP report explain or substantiate its sub-head claim.

No doubt the above is an instance of the "French view" that Then-Jack found lacking in responsible news reports. French news services think nothing of publishing this meliorative nonsense about France.

PARIS December 11, 2007 (AFP) - The French jobless rate fell to 7.9 percent of the workforce in the third quarter of this year from 8.1 percent in the second quarter, official data showed Tuesday.

Before reading further we must pose this question: When are the various collectivités d'outre-mer (COMs) and départements d'outre-mer (DOMs) -- where the inhabitants are counted as full French citizens -- when are these constituents of the French Republic no longer a part of France? [Pause. We look up to the ceiling.]

ANSWER: When the government needs to cook its unemployment numbers to slip below a stubborn 8%.

The figures, from the statistics office INSEE [Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques] and based on International Labour Organisation definitions of unemployment, were an initial estimate for mainland France and showed 2.2 million people actively looking for work.* The rate for the third quarter last year was 8.9 percent, INSEE said.

Including French overseas departments, the rate in the third quarter was 8.3 percent compared to 8.5 percent in the second quarter and 9.3 percent for the third quarter of 2006.

Amazing. When you count all them Frenchies there's little decline in unemployment -- if any at all.

Not to worry. Everything always doubleplusgood in France.

------------------------------------
* In February of this year the AFP reported 8.6% French unemployment, representing 2.093 million jobseekers. Here it reports 7.9% unemployment yet there are 107,000 more jobseekers. Amazing stuff.

PFFT (What is this?): How'd they do that? 5 | Rayonnement français 0