Context: French vs. U.S. Jobs Situation

According to this AP report, French unemployment is at its lowest level in 24 years — 7.8%. This story at Expatica.com from AFP has it lower:

he French jobless rate fell to 7.5 percent of the working population in the last quarter of 2007, according to official figures Thursday which the government hailed as the lowest level since 1983.

The data, from the statistics office INSEE, give an unemployment rate for France of 8.0 percent last year, down from 8.8 percent in 2006.

“This is historically the lowest figure since 1983,” Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said, citing the creation of 340,000 jobs last year.

Unemployment at 7.5% is good news in France. In the US, it would probably generate calls for impeachment.

Meanwhile, our unemployment rate drops to 4.8%, the second straight monthly decline, only 0.9% higher than the lowest reading in the 1990s, and 0.4% lower than the 1993-2000 average of 5.2%. Oh, and 284,000 fewer people were unemployed in February vs. December.

But because a more-imprecise measurement tells us that an estimated 105,000 fewer people were working at the end of February vs. thought to be working at the end of January (63,000 plus prior-month downward revisions, i.e., 0.07% of the workforce), the markets, giving in to months of opportunistic Old Media frenzy, and helped along by a patently false “workers are giving up” meme (see related links below), think the sky is falling. Zheesh.

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Related links:
- March 7 — February’s Employment Report (Updated for Media Mangling)
- March 7 (at NewsBusters) — AP Highlights Fewer Jobs, Ignores Steep Drop in Unemployed
- March 9 — AP’s ‘Workers Giving Up’ Claim Goes from ‘Perhaps’ to ‘Fact’ in 24 Hours, with No Credible Support