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UNEMPLOYMENT

Moderates pledge billions for unemployed

Fredrik Reinfeldt's Moderate Party wants to spend 3 billion kronor ($410 million) over the next three years on job coaching, work experience and training, creating over 31,000 new opportunities in 2011 and 2012, according to party estimates.

Moderates pledge billions for unemployed
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt

“It is now the right time to expand the volumes,” Reinfeldt said during a campaign stop in Norrköping.

The investment is temporary for the next two years with a focus on 2011. The package involves the creation of 6,000 extra work experience placements, 13,300 job coaching places and 1,000 more opportunities in folk high schools.

Around 2,000 unemployed young people are to be offered higher study grants in order to tempt them to complete their studies at Komvux adult education schools.

The Moderates also want to reinforce the employment support provision for the long term unemployed, so that the ceiling for remuneration to employers is lifted from 750 kronor to 890 kronor per day up to 85 percent of wage costs. At the same time the qualification for those to be employed under the scheme would be raised from 14 months to 24 months of unemployment.

The investment is budgeted to cost a total of 1.4 billion kronor and cover 6,000 people in 2011 and 2012.

The Moderates also want to change the conditions for young people to qualify for the youth jobs guarantee. Currently the requirement is three consecutive months of unemployment and would be changed to an accumulated three months in a four month period to enable young people to accept short-term temporary jobs.

The entire package, which is yet to be negotiated with the Moderates’ three coalition parties, covers 31,000 places and is budgeted to cost 3 billion kronor.

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BUSINESS

Unemployment in France falls slightly despite the lockdown

Unemployment in France has fallen slightly, despite the ongoing ravages of the health crisis and consequent lockdown, latest statistics show.

Unemployment in France falls slightly despite the lockdown
Photo: Stephane du Sakatin/AFP

The number of unemployed job seekers in mainland France fell by 0.4 percent in the first three months of 2021, according to figures published by the French Ministry of Labour on Tuesday.

There were 3,560,600 unemployed registered at the Pôle Emploi (unemployment office), 12,200 fewer than during the last three months of 2020.

This follows a 2.7 percent fall in the final three months of 2020 – but the rate is still up 6.8 percent compared with the first three months of 2020, before Europe began to feel the economic impact of the Covid pandemic.

Currently all ‘non essential’ shops in France have been closed since April 3rd, while bars, restaurants, cafés, gyms, cinemas, theatres, museums and tourist sites have been closed since October 2020.

Despite the fall the total number of job seekers, the number of people who were in work but with reduced hours was up by 0.8 percent at the start of 2021, to 2,156,300.

That means that in total 5,716,900 people in mainland France were registered with Pôle emploi during this period, an increase of 4.9 percent compared with a year ago.

“Over the course of 2020, in one year, unemployment rose by 8 percent. This is obviously a lot, but we must remember that during the crisis of 2008-2009, unemployment leapt by 25 percent, so we can see that the government assistance is working,” Minister of Labour Élisabeth Borne told BFMTV on Tuesday.

The French government has put together a huge package of economic aid to try and mitigate the effects of the repeated lockdowns, from chômage partiel (furlough) schemes for employees to aid packages for business owners and the self-employed. But many small retailers have been hit hard by the three periods of closure for non-essential shops, while the tourist, leisure and hospitality sectors have also had a devastating year.

The economic downturn linked to the pandemic has disproportionately affected young people in France.  Across all categories of job seekers (unemployed and with reduced hours), the latest figures show a rise of 7.1 percent in a year for those under 25, compared to 4.5 percent for the 25-29 age range, and 4.8 percent for those aged 50 and over.

Men are also more likely to have signed up to Pôle emploi, with a 6.1 percent increase on last year, compared to a 3.8 percent increase among women.

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