Emmanuel Macron announces a new turn of the screw on unemployment

Former Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt waited for the green light for several weeks… End of intrigue. Emmanuel Macron announced the launch “next spring” of the second act of labor market reform, launched the day after his first election in 2017. “The government will encourage the creation and renewal of jobs,” the president said, without elaborating. However, he clarified that there would be “tighter rules in case of rejected job offers and better support for our unemployed people through training as well as placements on very specific things like housing or transport.”

Therefore, it is Catherine Vautrin, the new figure in the Ministry of Labor, who will take on this already quietly prepared project. The second salvo of reforms, while the full employment law of December 18, 2023 is barely beginning to apply with the creation of France Travail and the reform of South Africa. What will its contours be beyond the main lines? It will be a matter of “a combination of more training, more flexibility, more mobility, more anticipation, and when we can simplify it will be better,” the outgoing minister said last December.

As for the new tightening of the screws on the unemployed, which Emmanuel Macron has called for, the proposal certainly risks attracting the attention of trade unions, which are in the midst of negotiations to tighten the terms of compensation for older people. Current rules already provide penalties for refusing two job offers.

The goal of these future measures is to “achieve full employment”, a target set for 2027 and corresponding to an unemployment rate of 5%, compared to 7.4% currently. A course that Emmanuel Macron is sticking to despite the economic downturn this year. The Bank of France and OFCE forecast an unemployment rate of around 8%. Gabriel Attal says he himself “understands” the “uncertain” economic context. Also during his general policy speech, the new prime minister should outline the contours of this reform.