If you're a skilled hotel and restaurant worker, France may be the place where you'd like to go. But don't count on France relaxing its immigration laws before the 2007 elections to the country's presidency, because nationalist candidates have cornered a significant share of the national vote.

France, according to Bloomberg.com, is facing a severe skills crunch in the hotel and restaurant industry. Bloomberg quotes Jacques Pourcel, founder of Le Jardin des Sens, the Michelin three-star restaurant in Montpellier, as saying he can't find a pastry chef even for 36,000 euros a year, which is 60% more than the national average.

"Three-quarters of three-star restaurants are looking for staff," said Pourcel, 41, whose restaurants have 30 vacancies. Pourcel's woes reflect a mismatch of skills and jobs in France, Bloomberg reports.

France has favoured intellectual education for at least the past two decades at the expense of vocational training, creating a culture in which manual work is seen as less prestigious. Not surprisingly, 63% of restaurant managers, who plan to hire a total of 34,565 cooks this year, expect staffing shortages, according to a December survey of 1.47 million companies by Unedic, the unemployment benefits agency.

At least 44% of hotels and restaurants expect to struggle to find waiters and other help, the Unedic report said. "We've got 50,000 to 60,000 unfilled positions each year,'' said Francis Attrazic, Vice-President of UMIH, the country's hoteliers' federation.

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