French President Emmanuel Macron. Picture: REUTERS/LISI NIESNER
The labour shortage is particularly acute for transport and logistics firm Groupe Mousset, based near Les Herbiers in western France, where unemployment is almost half the national average. CEO Frederic Leblanc has resorted to extreme tactics to woo workers, giving employees free shares in his company, a car for €1 a month, and personal coaching courses.
On Thursday, Macron will get a sense of French people’s appetite for more change when unions go on strike to protest his plan to overhaul the pension system.The reform blitz was designed to help labour-intensive manufacturers, such as those scattered across Pays de la Loire in western France. At toolmaker Loiretech, the deepening of payroll tax cuts that began under Macron’s predecessor gave CEO Marc Morel margin to hire.
The European Central Bank is watching the progress particularly closely. After deciding in September to pump more money into the economy with interest-rate cuts and quantitative easing, it’s demanding more from governments to help their economies benefit from the loose policy. Part of the difficulty in France is the time it takes for reforms to trickle through and for companies and workers to use new opportunities.