“The objective of full employment is achievable. It consists in doing, in the next five years, what we have done in the last five years”, promised Emmanuel Macron Thursday, March 17, when he had put on the candidate’s costume to outline his proposals for a next term in front of 320 journalists gathered in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis).
→ ANALYSIS. Emmanuel Macron’s program: the RSA conditioned on an activity, an old idea not so easy to apply
What has been done since 2017? A reform of unemployment insurance, which reduced the period of compensation to make it more incentive to return to work; another on labor law, which has reshuffled the cards of collective bargaining; and strong learning support.
Productivity to watch
The results are there: an unemployment rate reduced to 7.4%, a record since 2008; a record also for the employment rate, hoisted to 68% among 18-65 year olds (a first since… 1975!), but also 720,000 apprentices in 2021, i.e. 60% more than three years earlier. Still, the path to full employment, while the global economic situation is very unfavorable, does not flow naturally.
Full employment, i.e. the level of incompressible unemployment, is estimated at around 5% of unemployed people in France, as Emmanuel Macron recalled on Thursday March 17. To achieve this rate, it is necessary to improve the efficiency of the labor market, ie to allow a better match between job offers and job demands.
Support the unemployed
In this sense, the candidate president proposes to transform the Pôle emploi agency into “France Travail”, with the mission of better supporting the unemployed. “The diagnosis is correct: the system is organized for everyone, except for the unemployed, analyzes Antoine Foucher, former chief of staff of Muriel Pénicaud, when the latter was minister of labor in the government. For the latter, it is an obstacle course due to the multiplication of interlocutors. »
→ FACTS. Emmanuel Macron, a 50 billion euro program
It is true that between Pôle emploi, the departments and the regions… skills are scattered. “The whole point is that France Travail is not a lick of paint on the five bodies that today participate in supporting the unemployed, and that there is a real one-stop shop with the reorganization of skills that this implies. », judges the one who now practices in social strategy consulting with his company Quintet.
Form the battalions
Better support therefore, but also better training for people destined for the job market. “The apprenticeship has been a success during the mandate, even if the state support raises questions in terms of financial sustainability, believes Franck Morel, social law lawyer at Flichy Grangé but also former social counsel for Édouard Philippe. More broadly, on training, we must now ensure that it is in line with the needs of the economy. »
“For example, on the personal training account (CPF), it is important that the assets keep control, but the employer can direct by abounding the device for certain training, he continues. It is also important to dereference some of them, as has been proposed. »
Unattractive jobs…
Emmanuel Macron also intends to push the unemployed to find a job more quickly, by reforming unemployment insurance again, after the reform which took place in 2021. “Each time the economic situation improves, we must have rules that insist even more on the return to work” and vice versa, he proposed.
Not sure that these efforts are sufficient. “One of the challenges over the next few years will be to fill low-skilled jobs in the service sector, typically the profession of nursing assistant, jobs in cleanliness or security, notes Antoine Foucher. These sectors are very demanding but, even if it is difficult to throw stones at them, many people do not want these jobs. »