The unemployment rate, within the meaning of the bit, fell by 0.1 %, to stand at 7.3 % of the active population. Sign that the job market always resists, despite growth at half mast.
by Thibaud Métais
Stagnation was expected, it is confirmed. In the third quarter, the number of unemployed, within the meaning of the International Labor Office (ILO), lowered very slightly: – 17,000 throughout the territory (overseas including, except Mayotte) compared to the previous quarter, according to The statistics broadcast, Tuesday, November 15, by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). The unemployment rate is therefore almost stable (- 0.1 %) and is now 7.3 % of the working population for 2,252 million people. “The unemployment rate fluctuates between 7.3 % and 7.4 % since the fourth quarter of 2021, at a level lower than 0.9 points to that before the health crisis,” said INSEE. It has increased slightly (+ 0.3 point) for young people (15-24 years), to 18.3 %, and remains stable (-0.1 point) for 25-49 year olds and for 50 years or more , respectively at 6.5 % and 5.1 %.
If this stabilization of the unemployment rate was predictable given the 89,400 additional jobs in the private sector in the third quarter, it is nonetheless surprising. While French growth is sluggish (+ 0.2 % of gross domestic product), the job market continues to resist. Despite the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, there is still no trend reversal. The 15-64-year-old employment rate thus increases by 0.3 points in the third quarter and reached 68.3 %. It is 0.8 points above its level of a year ago “and at its highest level since the INSEE measured”, in 1975, according to the institute’s press release. “We must congratulate ourselves on this situation, says Gilbert this, professor of economics at Neoma Business School. But when employment increases more strongly than growth, this means that there is a negative development of productivity.” Same question at Eric Heyer, Director of the Department Analysis and forecasting of the French Observatory for Economic Conditions (OFCE): “It is quite incomprehensible to have so many job creations given our growth.”
The good results of the work -study
The employment rate increases by 0.1 point for young people (15-24 years), to 34.9 %, and has reached its highest level since 1990, “especially due to work-study contracts”, according to INSEE. Because learning is one of the reasons why the job market continues to hold on. The good results of the work -study work in particular a drop ( – 34,000 people) of the “halo around unemployment” – people wishing to return to the job market but who are not considered unemployed by the bit -, to 1.8 million people, according to INSEE data. “Apprentices do not go through unemployment box but go directly to the job market,” says Eric Heyer.
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