The unemployment rate in France as defined by the International Labor Office (ILO) stabilized at 7.5% of the active population in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter, INSEE reported on Friday. This rate as defined by the International Labor Office (ILO), harmonized at European level, is slightly better than that forecast by the National Institute of Statistics in mid-March, which was 7.6%.
In detail, 6,000 additional unemployed people were recorded during the last quarter, bringing their number in the whole of France (excluding Mayotte) to 2.3 million according to this method of calculation which allows international comparisons, said the Institute. National Statistics.
“We are still in a period of slowdown in the labor market” with unemployment “at a rather low level if we look over a long period,” Yves Jauneau, head of the market synthesis and economic situation, told AFP. of the work of the institute. However “over one year, the increase in employment does not quite make it possible to compensate for the increase in the active population which is very dynamic”, adds the expert.
The unemployment rate, which the government wants to reduce to 5% in 2027, had reached its lowest level since 1982 at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, at 7.1% of the active population. At 7.5%, it remains 3 percentage points lower than its peak in mid-2015.
This result is explained in particular by the increase in the employment rate, which gained 0.3 percentage points in one quarter, going from 68.5% to 68.8%. The increase is two points compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, before the health crisis. The increase concerns all age groups. It is moderate for 15-24 year olds, whose employment rate increases from 35.1% to 35.3% as well as for 25-49 year olds (82.4% to 82.5%), but stronger among 50-64 year olds among whom it goes from 67.2% to 67.7%.
Black dot
The increase is even more pronounced among those aged 55-64, for whom the employment rate gains 0.7 percentage points in a single quarter, going from 58.9% to 59.6%, and 4.2 points per compared to the last quarter of 2019.
“This is a result that we expected with the pension reform” which has come into force gradually since September 2023, explains Yves Jauneau, who recalls that INSEE expects “a sharp increase in the activity rate of seniors in the next ten years.
The youth unemployment rate remains a black spot in the French labor market with an increase of 0.6 points to 18.1%, up 1.5 points over one year. On the contrary, this rate falls by 0.2 points for those aged 25-49 to 6.8%, and is almost stable for those aged 50 and over at 5.1% (+0.1 points). It decreases slightly (-0.1%) for women to 7.3% and increases slightly (+0.1%) for men, to 7.7%.
The unemployment halo, made up of people considered inactive by the ILO because they want to get a job but are not looking for one or are not available, “continues to decline and is now below its pre- health crisis” with 1.9 million people affected, notes Yves Jauneau.
The long-term unemployment rate, i.e. job seekers who have been looking for at least a year, is stable at 1.8% of the active population. The number of these unemployed decreases by 23,000 compared to the last quarter of 2023, to 549,000 people.