[gamblor956]

France's unemployment numbers don't include the many contract workers that are not full time employees under French law. A lot of them are out of work right now and receiving nothing from the French government.

Because French law makes it so hard to fire a full-time employee, many businesses only hire workers on a part-time basis.

In contrast, most US unemployment numbers generally include all individuals seeking work, regardless of the type of employment they previously had.

[hadrien01]

False, unemployment numbers include part-time and fixed-term contracts, and they've only gone up 42k compared to last year[1]. Part-time and fixed-term contracts are covered under the French partial furlough reimbursement plan.

[1] https://www.lesechos.fr/economie-france/social/coronavirus-h...

[gamblor956]

The French numbers are more than 42,000. Under the partial furlough program, they've simply re-labeled unemployed workers to be "partially furloughed" workers rather than unemployed.

Using that definition, the US COVID-related unemployment numbers aren't nearly as bad, since millions have been "furloughed" rather than "permanently laid off."

The devil is in the details.

[perl4ever]

People always say unemployment is undercounted, especially in the US, but I believe the rates are based on surveying people and anyone is counted if they say they want to work (more).

I'm very skeptical that furloughed people would not be counted, because I just don't think the process works that way.

Of course, maybe things have changed. The depressing thing about cynicism is it means you end up having no resistance to it becoming a reality.