[Osem]

Well unemployment is certainly higher there but productivity is apparently quite a bit higher than in the UK too. A successful French businesswoman being interviewed on BBC news explained that it's largely due to the far greater costs associated with employing people and running businesses over there. Being self employed I admit I've never really thought to much about it but it makes sense and probably explains why so many of our businesses seem to be run in a rather old fashioned manner with outdated equipment etc. Staff are relatively cheap/easy to hire so they're more likely to get jobs but is that better or worse for UK plc?