Does France have a skilled labour cost problem?

There is a debate among French economists on the topic of skilled labour: For some, the policy of reducing corporate social contributions and therefore labour costs only makes sense for low-skilled labour, thanks to the high elasticity of low-skilled employment to its cost . F or these economists, there is no point lowering skilled labour costs because the unemployment rate among the skilled is very low: reducing social contributions on skilled labour would have the sole ef f ect of driving up the wages of the skilled; For others, the cost of skilled labour in France is also too high and is causing skilled jobs to move abroad. According to this argument, the number of skilled jobs in France is abnormally low, but the unemployment rate among the skilled is low because the skilled accept unsophisticated jobs for which they are overqualified , which crowds out the low-skilled from these jobs. For the proponents of this second theory, it would also be useful to lower corporate social contributions on skilled labour. Whichever of these two theories is right determines for which category of employment or at which wage level it is useful to lower corporate social contributions in France . When we look at : The number of skilled jobs in France and in other OECD countries (it is quite low in France); Skilled labour costs in France and in the other countries ( they are high in France); The number of vacant jobs (it is also high for skilled jobs, especially in the sciences), we conclude that, probabl y : It is useful to lower low-skilled labour costs; It would only be useful to lower skilled labour costs for graduates with degrees that make them difficult to employ.