PARIS (AP) France's business lobby is promising to create 1 million jobs over the next five years as it tries to convince the French that companies are not the enemy in the fight to reduce unemployment.
In an open letter released Friday, the Medef, however, said companies cannot be expected to lower 11 percent unemployment by themselves. The group is calling on the government to lower taxes and spending to give companies the room to act.
"We're in a kind of vicious cycle that, if we don't fix it, more taxes and more constraints on companies will only accelerate unemployment," Pierre Gattaz, the new head of the Medef, told reporters.
Gattaz said that the group thinks French companies pay 100 billion euros ($138 billion) more in taxes than they should.
That's a common refrain from French businesses, which are just as often criticized for paying their executives too much and not paying enough in taxes, especially during the economic downturn. Companies and executives are often dismissed as ruthless firing machines, and government officials frequently promise that companies won't be allowed to proceed with the layoffs they announce.
