VShis year again, the barometer on the attractiveness of France, published on May 2 by the EY firm (formerly Ernst & Young) places France at the top of the most attractive countries in Europe.
Editorialists from the economic press are delighted, praising the merits of the France company. The members of the government followed suit by defending their entire economic policy, from the reduction in taxes on dividends to the highly contested pension reform, including reductions in charges for businesses.
Let’s say it straight away: the use made of this barometer is completely misleading. When you look at the numbers in detail, there is nothing to celebrate. According to the barometer, France will have, in 2023, 1,194 foreign investment projects compared to 985 in the United Kingdom and 733 in Germany, which places our country ” on your mind “ of the ranking – a formulation used by many media.
But if we think about it a little, this figure is of little use: the number of projects is less important than the direct or indirect jobs generated by them. On this point, the barometer informs us that foreign investment projects in France are associated with 39,773 job creations. This is a first nuance: France moves into third position on the European scale of attractiveness, behind the United Kingdom and Spain.
But, here again, this indicator must be read with caution, because the number of jobs created should at least be related to the size of the country for the comparison to make sense. Once this adjustment is made, France comes in eighth position behind Portugal, Serbia, Ireland, Hungary, Spain, the United Kingdom and Greece. There is nothing to brag about.
Ideological proximity
Let’s go further by questioning the importance of such figures for the French economy. The 39,773 jobs created in 2023 represent 0.13% of the total active population. These jobs are welcome and will help the territories which will benefit from them, but it is clear that the figure remains very low compared to the importance that some would like to attribute to it.
Another way to see this is to compare it to the change in the number of unemployed last year. According to figures from INSEE and the International Labor Office (ILO), there were 142,000 more unemployed people in 2023, that is to say three and a half times more new unemployed than new jobs linked to Foreign investments.
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