Structural unemployment is more persistent in france than in the united states because:

Employees in France have less motivating force to rapidly look for another position when they are out of a current job position since their joblessness benefits are significantly higher. The mentality is simple "who wants to look for another job when fired when you can get enough money to take care of your daily needs even as an unemployed person with unemployment benefits". Because of this, the government of France does everything it can with regard to labor to make sure that everything is balanced.