Unemployment: slight thinning to start 2015 – The Obs

Paris (AFP) – The year 2015 began positively on the employment front: unemployment recorded in January its first decline since the summer, to $ 3.48 million job seekers no activity, “an encouragement to continue” to Manuel Valls.

employment center in January has identified 19,100 registered in category A (no activity) from December, when unemployment reached a record 3.50 million. Including overseas, the number of applicants is $ 3.74 million (-0.5%).

This is only the fourth fall in unemployment in 33 months mandate Francois Hollande.

These figures are “an encouragement to pursue” a “first positive sign,” responded the Prime Minister Manuel Valls told reporters after presenting the social partners outline a Bill on social dialogue in the companies.

For his part, the Minister of Labour François Rebsamen called, in a statement, to “be careful” and “observe over time the monthly developments “

Especially since the January figures are not all roses. Unemployment continues to rise, in fact, if we include the unemployed who had a small business (+ 0.3%). A key. Record of 5.23 million unemployed in France and 5.53 million in all France

In Class A, the decline in January, “relates more particularly to young people, no longer had experienced such a decline for over a year, “notes Mr. Rebsamen in a statement. The number of unemployed people under 25 fell by 1.4% in January, but is misdirected on-year (+ 0.4%).

Meanwhile, the unemployment of older s ‘stabilized last month (+ 0.1%). It remains up sharply compared to January 2014 (9.6%)

The January embellished cache, in addition, a further worsening of long-term unemployment. 2.27 million job seekers, small business included, are registered at employment center for more than a year, a statistic up 0.7% on the month and 9.3% year on year.

In early February, the Minister of Labour presented to them including a plane containing “free training” as part of the training personal account (CPF).

In January, job seekers had seniority average of 542 days to Pole employment, about one and a half

-. Removing obstacles to hiring –

The January figures are not necessarily herald a sustainable improvement

The reason:. low growth. Although François Rebsamen hopes to achieve “more than 1% growth” in 2015, this should not be enough to curb unemployment, which drop, according to economists, that beyond 1.5% growth.

Result: INSEE anticipates a continued rise in the unemployment rate by mid-2015, to 10.2% in France (+0.3 points compared with the third quarter of 2014) and 10.6% with ultramarine (+0.2 point).

Meanwhile, Unédic, which manages unemployment insurance, table metropolis 104,000 more unemployed in 2015, based on a growth forecast (+ 0.8%) lower than that of the government.

In 2014, 189,100 additional jobseekers had pushed the door of employment center.

But Mr Rebsamen remains optimistic. “What I hope is that the number of unemployed will decrease at the end of the year,” he said recently.

To achieve this, the Government is building on the Covenant of responsibility, 40 billion euro decrease in labor costs and tax cuts for businesses, as well as the draft law Macron, supposed “to unlock the French economy” but the parliamentary path is full of pitfalls.

Last leverage the government wants to operate: social dialogue in companies. Manuel Valls presented Wednesday before the publication of figures, the outline of a text he wishes to “definitively adopted this summer”

Objective:. Simplify the dialogue between employers and employee representatives and and remove barriers to employment.