How to fight unemployment with your savings

Savings are exploding: in 2020, the French set aside some 100 billion euros more than in 2019, according to the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee). A windfall that Bercy would like to mobilize to relaunch growth in France. This is even the objective of the “Relance” label, launched by the government at the end of 2020. The labeled funds – they were 161 to 2 April – must indeed devote at least 30% of their assets to finance French companies.

While the unemployment rate should soar to 10.1% in France at the end of 2021, according to Unédic, can savers wishing to support employment rely on this new label? Not necessarily, believes Anne-Catherine Husson-Traore, the CEO of Novethic. “It is not enough to declare yourself” Relance “to participate in job creation in France, be careful not to fall into the social washing. “

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Because while the “Recovery” funds must take into account environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment criteria, job creation is not specifically sought.

How then to find savings products that integrate job creation or, more generally, the fight against unemployment, in their investment criteria? We can turn to solidarity funds, these funds which must devote from 5% to 10% of their assets to the financing of companies and other entities of the social and solidarity economy (ESS), the rest of the portfolio being invested in shares. and obligations. Because employment is one of the themes on which the actors of the SSE intervene.

What criteria to measure job creation?

“Among our solidarity investments, 56% are devoted to structures working for access to employment, housing or business creation, three areas essential for successful professional integration of people in situations of exclusion” , illustrates Marie-Geneviève Loys-Carreiras, responsible for social investments at BNP Paribas AM. In 2020, she specifies, the SSE players supported by her management company have thus supported 23,000 people towards a return to employment.

Some of these solidarity funds also go further by also emphasizing job creation for their “non-SSE pocket” – the 90% to 95% of the portfolio traditionally invested in listed securities. A challenge, as job creation is complex to apprehend. For example, when a company takes over an activity, the transaction should not be counted as a net creation of jobs since these already existed.

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