**Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt said that because of “difficulties recruiting new employees,” the government could justify a “downward adjustment of the maximum duration of compensation.” Le Monde journalist Thibaud Métais reports:**
Emmanuel Macron promised to make unemployment benefits stricter when the labor market is doing well, and more generous when it is deteriorating. In the end, the new compensation rules will never be more protective for job seekers. Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt presented the new rules to the trade unions and employers’ organizations on Monday, November 21. The government chose the hard-line approach, five days after parliament adopted the bill allowing the government to modify compensation rules based on economic conditions, justified by France’s labor shortage problem.
As of February 1, 2023, the duration of compensation for new job seekers will be reduced by 25%. This means that someone entitled to 12 months of compensation today will only be entitled to nine under the new system. “We feel today that, since the unemployment rate is down to 7.3% and there are difficulties recruiting new employees, the labor market is in a favorable context that justifies a downward adjustment of the maximum duration of compensation,” said Olivier Dussopt at a press conference. The labor minister also defended a system “that will remain one of the most generous in Europe.”
While the government had ruled out changing the amount of compensation from the outset, it decided, in the end, to apply a strict reduction coefficient of 0.75 to the duration of compensation. Today, one day of work generates one day of compensation, with a maximum of 24 months of compensation for those under 53, 30 months for those 53-54 and 36 months for those 55 or older. From now on, a job seeker will only be compensated for 75% of the period worked, with a minimum of six months of compensation.
Is this a new demonstration, or will this be thrown in with the regular ones in summer?
Surely this will be popular with Macrons dwindling base of support. Betting on people hating facists more should not be your main appeal.
I get the reasoning behind the move, but the last time I checked low unemployment was 2 to 3%, not above 7%
For people who had worked for a short period of time (< 2 years) the previous rule was insanely generous. You worked two years, you had two years of unemployment benefit and they never really cared what you were doing during that time (looking for a job or not).
On the other hand if you had worked for twenty years, you still had only two years of unemployment benefit. (???)
I feel like it is just a lot more logical this way.
9 months?
Well, still a lot. It is 3 months in Hungary, so there’s that.
So the shit keeps getting worse and worse in France?
Why don’t they cut also the time a person contributes to the unemployment benefits?
Yes that’s possible, when a person loses its job or reaches pension give him back 25% of what he / she contributed!
Without this it seems that the government just wants to keep more money for itself.
People will hate it ( most of them) but in my opinion, it’s a good thing. (FYI I’m french) people get too cozy prolonging their unemployment time because they get paid more being unemployed than getting a” low” job.
The issue is the system that pays people more unemployment than with a job. Basically we need higher paying jobs but that’s not gonna happen any time soon.
also in today’s news
“En 2021, la rémunération moyenne des patrons du CAC40 représente 109 fois celle des salariés de ces 40 entreprises, en hausse de 52 % par rapport à 2019”
​
In 2021 average wages of CAC40 bosses are 109 times the wages of the employees, rising 52% since 2019 (thats roughly translated, I’m so pissed off by this)
To give some perspective, the debt of the unemployment assurance system in France is 60B€ at the end of 2021. While previous reforms and the good health of the job market (probably in part thanks to previous reforms as well) should allow a surplus of about 4B€ for 2022, the aim of this change is to accelerate the payment of this debt until the next unemployment crisis.
Why is he doing this?
Honestly, and I am french, this isn’t a bad thing. But instead of making it applicable to the whole workforce, they could have picked economic sectors where unemployement benefits do not need to be given that long. For instance, unemployement in engineering is 3.2% (meaning full employment. The turnover, switching jobs, and newly graduated engineers, who cannot claim for unemployement compensation anyway, make that figure), you don’t need 24 month to get a new job. They are a lot of jobs that are at that rate, and a lot higher. Instead, additionnal money could be put towards trainning or incentive in order to boost other sectors in pain.
13 comments
is OP an official LeMonde account ?
**Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt said that because of “difficulties recruiting new employees,” the government could justify a “downward adjustment of the maximum duration of compensation.” Le Monde journalist Thibaud Métais reports:**
Emmanuel Macron promised to make unemployment benefits stricter when the labor market is doing well, and more generous when it is deteriorating. In the end, the new compensation rules will never be more protective for job seekers. Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt presented the new rules to the trade unions and employers’ organizations on Monday, November 21. The government chose the hard-line approach, five days after parliament adopted the bill allowing the government to modify compensation rules based on economic conditions, justified by France’s labor shortage problem.
As of February 1, 2023, the duration of compensation for new job seekers will be reduced by 25%. This means that someone entitled to 12 months of compensation today will only be entitled to nine under the new system. “We feel today that, since the unemployment rate is down to 7.3% and there are difficulties recruiting new employees, the labor market is in a favorable context that justifies a downward adjustment of the maximum duration of compensation,” said Olivier Dussopt at a press conference. The labor minister also defended a system “that will remain one of the most generous in Europe.”
While the government had ruled out changing the amount of compensation from the outset, it decided, in the end, to apply a strict reduction coefficient of 0.75 to the duration of compensation. Today, one day of work generates one day of compensation, with a maximum of 24 months of compensation for those under 53, 30 months for those 53-54 and 36 months for those 55 or older. From now on, a job seeker will only be compensated for 75% of the period worked, with a minimum of six months of compensation.
**Read our full article:** [**https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2022/11/22/french-government-cuts-length-of-unemployment-insurance-by-25_6005129_5.html**](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2022/11/22/french-government-cuts-length-of-unemployment-insurance-by-25_6005129_5.html)
Is this a new demonstration, or will this be thrown in with the regular ones in summer?
Surely this will be popular with Macrons dwindling base of support. Betting on people hating facists more should not be your main appeal.
I get the reasoning behind the move, but the last time I checked low unemployment was 2 to 3%, not above 7%
For people who had worked for a short period of time (< 2 years) the previous rule was insanely generous. You worked two years, you had two years of unemployment benefit and they never really cared what you were doing during that time (looking for a job or not).
On the other hand if you had worked for twenty years, you still had only two years of unemployment benefit. (???)
I feel like it is just a lot more logical this way.
9 months?
Well, still a lot. It is 3 months in Hungary, so there’s that.
So the shit keeps getting worse and worse in France?
Why don’t they cut also the time a person contributes to the unemployment benefits?
Yes that’s possible, when a person loses its job or reaches pension give him back 25% of what he / she contributed!
Without this it seems that the government just wants to keep more money for itself.
People will hate it ( most of them) but in my opinion, it’s a good thing. (FYI I’m french) people get too cozy prolonging their unemployment time because they get paid more being unemployed than getting a” low” job.
The issue is the system that pays people more unemployment than with a job. Basically we need higher paying jobs but that’s not gonna happen any time soon.
also in today’s news
“En 2021, la rémunération moyenne des patrons du CAC40 représente 109 fois celle des salariés de ces 40 entreprises, en hausse de 52 % par rapport à 2019”
​
In 2021 average wages of CAC40 bosses are 109 times the wages of the employees, rising 52% since 2019 (thats roughly translated, I’m so pissed off by this)
To give some perspective, the debt of the unemployment assurance system in France is 60B€ at the end of 2021. While previous reforms and the good health of the job market (probably in part thanks to previous reforms as well) should allow a surplus of about 4B€ for 2022, the aim of this change is to accelerate the payment of this debt until the next unemployment crisis.
Why is he doing this?
Honestly, and I am french, this isn’t a bad thing. But instead of making it applicable to the whole workforce, they could have picked economic sectors where unemployement benefits do not need to be given that long. For instance, unemployement in engineering is 3.2% (meaning full employment. The turnover, switching jobs, and newly graduated engineers, who cannot claim for unemployement compensation anyway, make that figure), you don’t need 24 month to get a new job. They are a lot of jobs that are at that rate, and a lot higher. Instead, additionnal money could be put towards trainning or incentive in order to boost other sectors in pain.