The unemployment rate should stabilise, according to forecasts published Tuesday by INSEE, which sees the indicator remain at 8.9% of the workforce in France
After the sharp drop at the end of 2017, the unemployment rate should stabilize , according to forecasts published Tuesday by INSEE, which sees the indicator remain at 8.9% of the workforce in France (excluding Mayotte). here in mid-2018.
At the end of 2017, the unemployment rate fell to 8.9% (-0.7 point in the fourth quarter), falling below the 9.0% mark for the first time since 2009. In early 2018, the National Institute of statistic expects a rate of 9.0% in the first quarter, then 8.9% in the second quarter.
Unemployment would stabilize despite job creation still dynamic: the 113,000 additional positions expected by INSEE would barely absorb the rise in the labor force, estimated at 110,000 people.
133,000 new positions expected
In detail, INSEE anticipates 129,000 additional salaried positions in the non-agricultural market sector, 3,000 in the agricultural sector and 1,000 additional non-wage earners, “because of the still solid growth of activity”. INSEE expects growth of 0.4% per quarter by mid-2018.
But at the same time, it foresees 21,000 job losses in the non-profit sector (civil service, associations, etc.), “with the sharp decrease in the number of recipients of subsidized contracts”.
The Edouard Philippe government decided last summer to reduce the prescriptions of subsidized contracts, limiting the new contracts to 310,000 in 2017, after 459,000 in 2016. Only 200,000 signatures are planned in 2018.
