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YOUTH

Subsidies ‘will tackle youth jobless problem’

France's Socialist government unveiled plans Wednesday to subsidize the creation of tens of thousands of jobs for marginalised youth despite efforts to rein in the state budget deficit.

Published: 29 August 2012 16:34 CEST

President Francois Hollande's government announced €2.3 billion ($2.9 billion) in subsidies in next year's budget aimed at creating 150,000 new jobs for youth by the end of 2014.

The plan – dubbed "jobs of the future" – is targeted mainly at 16- to 25-year-olds without high school diplomas from poor urban and rural areas.

After unveiling the plan at a cabinet meeting, Labour Minister Michel Sapin said the measure aimed to hit at "the heart of youth unemployment" in France.

A bill on the measure will be submitted to France's National Assembly on September 10 and Sapin said some jobs would be available as early as January.

Under the plan, the government will subsidise hirings in the public, non-profit and, to a smaller degree, private sectors to a maximum of 75 percent of the minimum wage for three years.

With the number of jobless nearing three million and polls showing his popularity falling, Hollande has made job creation his government's key goal since he took power in May.

But he is also struggling to find savings of 30 billion euros ($38 billion) in next year's budget to meet EU deficit reduction rules.

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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.

Published: 27 April 2021 16:46 CEST
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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