The number of unemployed (category A, without activity) recorded in France (excluding Mayotte) a sharp drop of 3.6% in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the previous quarter, i.e. 114,400 less registered to 3.050 million, according to published figures Wednesday by the Department of Labor. This is the lowest level since the third quarter of 2011. But including reduced activity (categories B and C of Pôle Emploi), the number of job seekers fell by only 0.8% to 5.394 million ( – 40,900 people).
This change is due to a sharp increase in registered in category B (job seekers having worked less than 78 hours per month, +5.0%) and C (more than 78 hours per month, +2.3%). The drop of 3.6% in category A follows a virtual stability in the previous quarter. Over one year, the drop was 9.3% (-312,100) and 5.1% in categories AB and C (-291,200). This play of “communicating vessels” between categories A on the one hand and B and C on the other is partly explained, according to Pôle emploi, by an improvement in the procedure for updating applicants at the end of the month. employment occurred during 2022.
Long-term unemployment also down
This technical development “has a lasting downward impact” in category A in return for a slight increase in exits from the lists and a “sustainable increase in categories B and C”, explains Pôle emploi. In category A, for metropolitan France alone, the number of job seekers fell by 0.4% for those under 25 (-9.8% over one year), by 4.5% for those aged 25 -49 years (-9.5% over one year) and 3.9% for those aged 50 and over (-8.9% over one year).
On the long-term unemployment front, the number of jobseekers registered for a year or more fell by 3.1% in the fourth quarter (-13.5% over one year) to 2.296 million (categories A, B and C ). The share of job seekers registered for a year or more reached 45.2% (-4.3 points over one year).
The average number of job seekers in category A has decreased in the thirteen regions of metropolitan France (between -7% in Pays-de-la-Loire and -1.5% in Hauts-de-France and +2 .6% in Brittany). In the overseas departments-regions excluding Mayotte, the decline ranged from -2.3% in Guadeloupe to -0.3% in Reunion.