The labor market confirms its good health in the second quarter of 2022 (AFP/Archives/PHILIPPE HUGUEN)
A stable unemployment rate, an employment rate that is breaking records: the labor market confirms its good health in the second quarter of 2022, despite a gloomy economic context and the concerns arising from inflation at its highest in 37 years.
According to unemployment figures as defined by the International Labor Office (ILO) published Friday by INSEE, unemployment stabilized at 7.4% of the working population in France (excluding Mayotte), i.e. 2.3 million people, against 7.3% in the first quarter of 2022.
The number of unemployed thus equals its level in the fourth quarter of 2021, and remains 0.8 points below its pre-crisis level at the end of 2019.
“Since the end of the worst of the health crisis, employment has been very dynamic”, reports to AFP Sylvain Larrieu, head of the economic summary division of the labor market at INSEE.
Compared to the 102,500 jobs created in the private sector during the same quarter, “we could have expected a drop in unemployment”, notes however Eric Heyer, economist at the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE).
Other indicators attest to the good health of the labor market: the employment rate of the population (aged 15 to 64) stabilized at 68% (+1 point compared to the 2nd quarter of 2021), unseen since 1975 and the first measurements made by INSEE.
It even reached its highest historical level among 50-64 year olds (66%, +0.5 points over one year).
The activity rate (which calculates the ratio between the number of workers and the general population) reached 73.5% (+0.1 point). It is especially among young people (15-24 years) that it increases: +1.1 point to 42.5%.
For Eric Heyer, this activity rate indicates that, following the health crisis, “more people are entering the labor market, unlike the phenomenon observed in the United States where there would be a large resignation”.
– Job quality –
It is in a nod to International Youth Day that Olivier Dussopt, Minister of Labour, hailed on Twitter the “highest rate of employment and activity of young people since 1990”, while recalling the “objective employment and training for all”.
The development of apprenticeship contracts partly explains these figures, according to Eric Heyer: “Young people, during their schooling, thus integrate the employment rate”.
Unemployment in France (AFP/)
The youth unemployment rate (15-24 years) increased by 1.3 points during the second quarter, to 17.8%. But “as it had fallen a lot in 2021, it remains below its pre-crisis level”, by 3.7 points, indicates Sylvain Larrieu, of Insee.
In the other age categories, the unemployment rate is virtually stable among the 25-49 age group (+0.1 point, to 6.7%), and it falls by 0.3 point among the over 50s ( at 5.2%).
In detail, the long-term unemployment rate (at least one year) fell very slightly, to 2.1% of the active population (-0.1 point) and remained 0.3 point lower than its level a year ago.
As for the share of underemployment (people on partial unemployment or part-time and wishing to work more), it fell by 0.1 point over the quarter, to 4.6% of people in employment, its lowest level since 1992. .
“Job quality is improving,” says Eric Heyer.
The definition of unemployment by the ILO does not take into account the “halo around unemployment”, i.e. unemployed people who want to work but are unavailable to return to work or not actively looking for work. This category includes 1.9 million people in the 2nd quarter (+0.1 point).
President Emmanuel Macron has set himself the goal of achieving full employment by 2027, which according to economists corresponds to an unemployment rate of around 5%.
For this, the government is betting on three reforms: unemployment insurance, the transformation of Pôle emploi into “France Travail” and the allocation of the RSA on the condition of having an activity.
© 2022 AFP
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