« Lhalf of the people who reach retirement are unemployed. This is what Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally, said during the presidential campaign. This argument is often brandished by those who oppose any reform of the pension system that would lengthen the duration of careers. The leaders of La France insoumise take it up regularly to justify their desire to return to retirement at age 60 after 40 annual contributions for everyone.
Michael Zemmour, professor of economics at the University of Paris-I, specialist in social protection, explains, for his part, in an interview granted to Humanity, “that one out of two people” no longer has a job when they retire. Which would mean that extending careers is even more likely to worsen their situation. A study published in February by the supplementary scheme for private sector employees, Agirc-Arrco, to which 96% of the French population contributes at least once in their life, however, shows that Jordan Bardella’s assertion is grossly exaggerated.
In 2020, 63% of new retirees who had contributed, at one time or another, to the supplementary scheme, were indeed employed the year before their retirement. They occupied a position mainly in the private sector, for more than 43%, but not only. These young retirees also came from the public sector (12%) or were self-employed (6%); 1% of them previously worked in a special scheme.
What about the remaining 40% of new 2020 retirees? What were they doing the year before they retired? Were they unemployed as the president of the RN claims? In reality, only 11.5% pointed to Pôle emploi. It should be noted that they may have held a job for part of the year preceding their retirement, but were subsequently unemployed. This is the case for 23% of them in the 12 months before retirement, 42% in the 24 months and 62% in the 36 months before retirement. A further 6.5% were disabled or sick. That is nearly 20% of new retirees.
READ ALSORetirement at 60, bankruptcy at the turn
More women
It remains to know their situation. It is true that these people did not acquire any new pension rights in the year preceding their departure. “They represent, describes Agirc-Arcco, people far from the French labor market and not identified as receiving unemployment benefits, daily sickness benefits, a disability or incapacity pension. They include various situations such as uncompensated long-term unemployment who do not meet the conditions for acquiring quarters, house persons, people who have gone to live abroad, whether they are employed or not. »
This is a more feminized population than the others (60% of them are women). “More than one out of four new retirees in this category receive a disability or incapacity pension. These people can receive social minima such as the AAH (Allowance for disabled adults) or the RSA (Active solidarity income). “It can also be people receiving neither personal income nor social minimum, but being in a relationship with a spouse who himself has resources”, underlines the study. Nearly 30% of people in this category (apart from those who worked abroad) have the maximum rate of CSG, calculated at household level, applied to their pension. Conversely, nearly 40% have a low pension, with a zero CSG rate. In this disparate category, 6.8% live abroad, of which 4% are employed.
“40% of employees today, when they retire, are no longer at work”, argued, in 2019, the secretary general of the CFDT Laurent Berger. It’s already closer to reality. But we must take into account housewives or people who have gone abroad.
READ ALSOPatrick Artus: pension reform is not urgent