I would simply highlight the fact that while it is true that the UK (and the Netherlands and the Scandinavian labor market "success stories") all to some extent hide their issues in the unskilled labor market with LT disability schemes, the statistics you site all still point out a pretty depressing career-starting picture for the younger cohorts of French.

This is seen in the 25-29 cohort rather strikingly, and to a bit less of an extent that of the 30-34 cohort.

The younger cohorts, esp the 20-24, run into other issues making it harder to draw any conclusions: people extend their schooling (and are therefore not part of the active population) when the job market is lousy, and tend to jump into the labor market when there are well-paid jobs to be had. The latest Unesco data on this (warning, pdf) had France actually with a lower rate of post-secondary scolarisation in 2002-03 (56%) than either the UK (64%) or the US (81%). The eight point disparity between the UK and France probably explains most of the differential in the 20-24 cohort in your chart above. (Also noteworthy: in all three countries, this rate had gone up markedly, by 5-8 points, versus the period five years prior, as the job market soured a bit for new entrants to the work force.)

Unfortunately, when you're 25-34, there's not a lot more studying you can do, and this is where France's performance is really, really weak.

And obviously, I'm not agreeing with the neo-liberal consensus that France needs labor market liberalization reforms, but it needs to be pointed out that there is indeed a problem which should be addressed, and that there were in fact alternative programs in the election campaign we just saw (Buffet's program coming first to mind) which went in the right direction.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill