How the federal government desires to tighten unemployment insurance coverage guidelines | EUROtoday
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” VShe path to full employment […] we have not finished it yet,” warned Friday 1er March Gabriel Attal, traveling in the Vosges.
The Prime Minister, who wants work to “pay better and always more than inactivity”, assured that he was ready to make “difficult decisions” to achieve this objective set by Emmanuel Macron.
To bring unemployment below 5% by 2027 – after it has started to increase again from 7.1% at the start of 2023 to 7.5% in the third quarter – the government intends to tackle new to the unemployment insurance rules.
“The reform of unemployment insurance is necessary to achieve full employment,” declared Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy, in an interview with World this Wednesday. “If you don't touch social spending, you cannot achieve balanced finances,” he added, while the government announced ten billion euros in savings at the end of February.
From the Vosges, the Prime Minister has already announced a tripling of controls on job seekers, particularly in professions in shortage, by 2027. Gabriel Attal also defended the reform of the RSA which should allow “to be better guided towards employment” thanks to 15 to 20 hours of training or internship in return for their allowance. In the JDD, the Prime Minister had indicated that the degression of allowances and the reduction of the duration of compensation were under study. The end of ASS, this solidarity allowance for unemployed people who have exhausted their rights, was also announced by Matignon.
“The government is quite explicit: they have a vision of the labor market where individuals respond strongly to incentives. This means that, for them, your incentive to return to work depends on the differential between the salary offered and the level of social protection you can obtain without working. We feel that there is a desire for a fairly profound revolution in the social protection system, to move towards a model which ensures a “minimum safety net”, less linked to the previous situation, as is, for example, the case in the United Kingdom,” deciphers OFCE economist Raul Sampognaro.
A 2019 reform with mixed results
The two unemployment insurance reforms already implemented under Macron's presidency respond to this logic. That of 2019, implemented in 2021 due to Covid, increased the minimum working time giving rights to unemployment benefits from four to six months. It reduced daily allowances for split careers and led to the establishment of a bonus-malus system to push companies to stop hiring short contracts (CDD, temporary). The 2022 reform introduced a 25% reduction in the duration of contributions in the event of unemployment below 9%.
But despite the government's efforts, the 2019 reform had mixed effects on the return to employment, according to Dares, which published a report on the subject at the end of February. In fact, the opening of rights to unemployment insurance decreased by 14% between 2019 and 2022. But if the reform encouraged those over 25 in particular to find employment more quickly, it could “turn certain people over having very divided paths on social minimums”, notes the president of the reform analysis committee, Raphaël Lalive.
State possession of Unédic
Gabriel Attal's new bulletins fear the social companions, who should initially negotiate the foundations of unemployment insurance coverage inside the framework of Unédic. But since 2018, the federal government has despatched them a framework letter with aims to attain. Without an settlement, the State takes management once more with a “deficiency decree”. “The social partners are put on the sidelines, this follows the same logic,” estimates the economist on the OFCE, Raul Sompognaro. “For my part, I consider that the State should regain control of unemployment insurance definitively,” confirmed Bruno Le Maire in The world.
Will these reforms be sufficient to attain full employment? “Given the history of the unemployment rate in France, I think it is a very ambitious and difficult objective to achieve,” judges Raul Sampognaro. “But yes, if you make life very difficult in a condition of non-employment, there is a chance that you will accept jobs that a priori you did not want to take and therefore that these reforms will push towards more employment. » But the economist is worried about potential perverse effects: “This could push qualified people to accept low-skilled jobs. People without qualifications could therefore turn to Uberized jobs or find themselves unemployed with less protection,” he warns. Gabriel Attal will convene a authorities seminar in mid-March to “prepare major decisions” in labor issues.
https://www.lepoint.fr/economie/comment-le-gouvernement-veut-durcir-les-regles-de-l-assurance-chomage-06-03-2024-2554416_28.php