For the moment, the labor market continues to do well, despite the recent slowdown in growth. In the first quarter, the number of unemployed, as defined by the International Labor Office (ILO), fell by 18,000 compared to the last three months of 2021, now standing at 2.232 million, according to a note released on Tuesday May 17, by INSEE. The unemployment rate is “almost stable”, at 7.3%. This is the lowest percentage since 2008, if we set aside “the punctual fall “in trompe-l’oeil”” which happened during the first lockdown of 2020, with tens of thousands of people having stopped looking for a job because of the restriction measures taken at the time.
It is as if employment were resisting the brutal slowdown in activity recorded between the beginning of January and the end of March, under the effect of several events: the invasion of Ukraine, the shutdown of companies in China due to the restart of the Covid-19 epidemic, disorganization of supply chains, etc. Recruitment in the private sector is however a little less dynamic: + 0.3% in the first quarter, against + 0.6% from the beginning of October to the end of December 2021. This lesser increase shows that certain sectors are suffering the blow, particularly in the industry, but we are not witnessing, at this stage, a reversal of the trend.
Great learning success
Most of the indicators published on Tuesday are well oriented. Thus, the proportion of people aged 15 to 64 who hold a job has increased again, rising to 68%, which is a record since 1975 – the year when INSEE began to calculate this ratio. The trend is also very positive if we narrow the focus on young people: the employment rate for 15-24 year olds increased by 0.7 points in three months, rising to 34.6%, which represents “its highest level since 1991”. A surge probably linked, at least in part, to the great success of apprenticeship, which the government has supported by granting bonuses to companies that hire under this system.
Another encouraging figure: the proportion of individuals aged 15 to 29 who are neither in employment nor in training fell by half a point, to 11.8%, which corresponds to a low point in eight years (already reached in third quarter of 2021).
However, France’s performance is less dazzling than that of other countries. In Germany, the unemployment rate is 3%. As for the proportion of people aged 15 to 64 who are working, it exceeds the symbolic bar of 70% in several Member States of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada, etc.).
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