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Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Older People Who
Set Themselves Up
Under the Sun



'Despite top grades at law school, two years as an intern and success at the bar exam, Simon Caille faced the prospect only of temporary work and low-paid assistantships as a new lawyer in Paris.

Instead, brandishing the English he picked up along the way, Simon landed an internship in New York that paid better than some entry-level salaries in Paris. Soon he had a full-time position as a lawyer for an investment bank.

"That's the way it should work in France, but the truth is you spend almost a year looking for a real job offer," he said during a visit to Paris. "Everyone knows that hanging around too long is unattractive to employers, so I just left."

France's famously rigid labor market survived intact this spring when street protests tripped up Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's proposal to liberalize job contract laws for young people.

Its inflexibility is blamed for high unemployment and has prompted an exodus of young, well-educated French to look for work abroad.


…"They're looking for a hiring system that's more flexible than in France. And they're heading to countries where the 'casual job' culture is more developed," says Olivier Galland, a sociologist at the French National Research Center.

Last autumn's riots by poor suburban youths -- mostly children of immigrants -- highlighted youth unemployment of 22 percent overall and 40 percent or more in some poor suburbs.


…"France may remain attractive for older people who set themselves up under the sun in some beautiful countryside, but it's no longer the case for a young, dynamic workforce," said Herve Le Bras, a sociologist at the School for Advanced Social Studies in Paris.'



---reuters---