He wants the measures to come into force “in the fall”. Reduction in the duration of compensation, reduction in the amount of benefits… Gabriel Attal mentioned several avenues on Wednesday for reforming unemployment insurance.
Announcements from the Prime Minister which provoked a reaction: “64% of applicants [d’emploi] don’t touch anything”, thus affirmed the author of a message seen more than 10,000 times on X since it was posted online on Wednesday.
This digit comes from a forum signed by five unions on March 18. “Only 36% of those registered with France Travail (formerly Pôle emploi) are compensated, a level which has never been so low! », are alarmed by the CGT, CFDT, FO, CFTC and CFE-CGC. Is this really the case? 20 minutes did the calculations.
FAKE OFF
We delved into the figures from France Travail, which provides the number of job seekers receiving compensation, and those of Dares, statisticians attached to the Ministry of Labor, who provide them the number of job seekers.
With these data, we see that it is not 36% but around 41% (40.55%) of job seekers in mainland France, all categories combined, who received an allowance in the last quarter of 2023, the last period for which we have the figures.
Job seekers are classified into five categories: A, B, C, D, E. People classified in category D and E are those who are furthest from looking for a job: either they work and are not obliged to look for a new job, or they are unemployed but are not available or required to look for work – for example if they are in training.
If we take into account only the unemployed in categories A, B and C in mainland France, that is to say people required to actively look for a job, this is 46% of them, still less than one out of two, who received an allowance during this quarter.
The situation is not new: this was already the case in 2022. How can we explain it? Some job seekers do not meet the criteria to be compensated: this is for example the case if they have not contributed long enough or if they left their last position voluntarily, even if there are exceptions. in the event of resignation, remember France Travail. Others switch to RSA if they have exhausted the duration of compensation to which they were entitled. Finally, short-term sick leave can also suspend the payment of this compensation.