Faced with recruitment tensions, the government unveiled on Monday a plan which includes the release of 1.4 billion euros, including 900 million in 2021, and aims to train more employees and job seekers. The essential on this plan:
Reduce tensions in recruiting
Prime Minister Jean Castex evoked, by presenting this plan from a training center in Châtellerault (Vienne), the “extremely serious problem” of tensions on the labor market. At her side, the Minister of Labor Élisabeth Borne pointed out “the paradoxical situation” consisting in having companies “which do not manage to recruit” and “the unemployed who do not manage to find a job”.
The government is counting in particular on the implementation of the reform of unemployment insurance to “encourage work, the return to employment and this, on less precarious contracts”, underlined Jean Castex, the new method of calculating allowances to enter into force on 1 October.
The executive is also counting on strengthening the “attractiveness of trades” which involves sector negotiations, some of which have already been initiated. The third response, the “heart of the new measures” presented on Monday, according to Jean Castex, is “investment in skills” which aims to train employees and job seekers, especially long-term.
The government intends to mobilize an additional 1.4 billion euros over 2021 and 2022, including 900 million starting this year for vocational training, with the objective of training 1.4 million job seekers in 2022. For this year, the plan is financed by redeployment, in particular via “budgeted emergency credits” for the health crisis, said Jean Castex.
For employees
The State will release 600 million euros to “boost” the training of employees by SMEs. This is to enable SMEs with less than 300 employees to train 350,000 additional people (300,000 “short” training courses of 40 hours on average and 50,000 long training courses of 400 hours on average).
The government also intends to promote professional retraining thanks to the “collective transitions” system, which aims to allow employees whose jobs are threatened to turn to jobs that are recruiting.
This system, launched in early 2021, and which “was slow to take off” according to the Prime Minister, must in particular be simplified to be more accessible to SMEs. It can also be used in the context of a collective contractual termination (RCC).
For job seekers
As part of the Skills Investment Plan (PIC), launched at the start of the five-year term, an additional 560 million euros will be allocated to train 1.4 million job seekers in 2022.
According to the latest available data, published Monday, France (excluding Mayotte) had 5.883 million category A, B or C job seekers in August, down 0.7% over one month.
According to the government, currently “more than 1 million people seeking employment are trained each year, against 600,000 before the PIC”. The government still intends to “beef up” these formations. The idea is to make it possible to finance new actions “targeted towards shortage jobs, largely based on in-company training, in a work situation, which has the highest rates of return to work (up to 85%). %) ”. The training “will be aimed at all job seekers, whatever their level of qualification”.
Specific section for long-term job seekers
To support more specifically long-term job seekers who now account for more than one in two registered with Pôle Emploi, the government is counting on “remobilization” actions and assistance with hiring.
Thus, 240 million euros will be mobilized to extend the hiring aid of 8,000 euros within the framework of professionalization contracts. This aid will be extended over the whole of 2022. Ms. Borne affirmed that the “objective is to increase by a third the number of these contracts signed with long-term job seekers”.
Pôle emploi is also committed to recontacting all long-term job seekers by the end of 2021 and directing them towards the new measures of the plan.
For very long-term job seekers (registered for more than two years), Pôle emploi will also offer a more intensive “remobilization route”. Tested in 12 branches until December, this route will then be gradually generalized. All very long-term job seekers will be offered these courses by the end of 2022.