-0.5%: Improvement in unemployment in January, but many … – TF1

A slight thinning to start the year 2015. unemployment in January had its first decline since last summer, with 19 100 registered less to Pole Job in France (-0.5%) for a total of 3.48 million people with no activity, said Wednesday the Ministry of Labour. Including overseas, the number of job seekers without any business totaled 3.74 million (-0.5%). However, unemployment continues to rise if we include the unemployed who had a small business (+ 0.3%). Their number has reached 5.23 million records in France and 5.53 million throughout France.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said Wednesday encouraged to stay the course of its economic policy by the latest unemployment figures and other “positive sign.” After a meeting with the social partners on social dialogue, he mentioned the improvement of consumer confidence and the latest figures of the investment, which “also go in the right direction.” “The unemployment figures which have just been published, 19 000 job seekers Class A least in January, and are simply an encouragement to continue,” he has said. “In total, the government expects growth of 1% in 2015. This certainly remains too low but it is a first step,” said the head of government.

decrease of unemployment: improvement yes, but not for everyone

The nuances behind the good news

In Class A, the decline in January “relates more particularly to young people, who had no known such decline since more than a year,” said Labour Minister François Rebsamen in a statement. It calls for “caution” and “observe over time the monthly developments.” Especially since the January upturn cache, in addition, a further worsening of long-term unemployment: 2.27 million unemployed, small business range are registered at employment center for over a 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).

This is only the fourth drop in unemployment 33-month term of Francois Hollande. The president of MEDEF, Pierre Gattaz, welcomed the figures “going in the right direction.” “That said, this does not absolve us at all to make deep structural reforms for the country because one month is not enough to say ‘that’s it, it succeeded”, he added . The general secretary of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, as he said that “we can not be satisfied with such small declines, there needs a real job policy.”

This new number of job seekers gives a first trend for 2015, when the government hopes to see unemployment decline under the combined effect of its policies and a more favorable international environment. To achieve this, the Government is building on the Covenant of responsibility, 40 billion euros of lower labor costs and tax cuts for businesses, as well as the draft Macron law supposed to “unlock the French economy “but the parliamentary path is strewn with pitfalls.

But the January figures are not necessarily herald a sustainable upturn. At issue: the slow 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. This announcement came the same when Brussels agreed to a new period in France until 2017, in an election year, to bring its deficit below the 3% threshold.