After a brief stagnation, the fall in the number of job seekers resumed its course. This is more than welcome news for the government, which, despite an uncertain economic situation, has made full employment – an unemployment rate of around 5% of the active population – the objective of the five-year term.
According to statistics released on Wednesday, January 25, by Pôle emploi and the direction of the animation of research, studies and statistics, which depends on the Ministry of Labor, the number of job seekers without any activity (category A) experienced a sharp decrease in the fourth quarter of 2022, by 3.6%, to 3.049 million people throughout the territory (including overseas territories, except Mayotte) against 3.164 million in the third quarter. That’s a drop of 114,000 in the fourth quarter. Over one year, the workforce in this category, the most scrutinized, fell by 9.3%, or 312,000 fewer people.
Improvement in the employment rate of seniors
The decline in the fourth quarter is much less significant if we add job seekers in reduced activity (category B and C). Thus, the number of people registered with Pôle Emploi and required to look for a job (categories A, B and C) amounted to 5.394 million people, down 0.8% compared to the previous quarter, but down 5, 1% over one year. The 5.4 million mark has been crossed for the first time since 2014.
Thanks to this significant decline, the numbers in category A have never been so low since 2011. “Full employment is also a good job. We continue our mobilization »declared the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, on TwitterWednesday.
All age groups benefit from this favorable situation, in particular the under 25s (− 9.8% over one year in mainland France), but also, and this is one of the crucial challenges of the pension reform, the seniors. The number of category A job seekers over the age of 50 thus fell by 8.9% over one year. The improvement in the employment rate of seniors that began some twenty years ago is continuing.
The labor market therefore continues to resist the current economic climate. “We are surprised by these results, but we have been for three years now, explains Gilbert Cette, professor of economics at the Neoma Business School. We might have expected the situation to deteriorate when growth prospects are not spectacular. »