“This is not the only possible reform” to promote employment, believes Bertrand Martinot

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The economist was the guest of “8h30 franceinfo”, Sunday May 26, 2024.

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Bertrand Martinot, economist, was the guest of "8:30 a.m. franceinfo"Sunday May 26, 2024. (FRANCEINFO / RADIO FRANCE)

Bertrand Martinot, economist, labor specialist and former advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy, was the guest of “8h30 franceinfo”, Sunday May 26, 2024. Unemployment insurance reform, “senior employment bonus”… He answered questions from Jean-Rémi Baudot and Agathe Lambret.

Unemployment insurance: “This is not the only possible reform”

“This is not the only possible reform” to promote access to employment, believes Bertrand Martinot. In an interview with La Tribune Sunday (subscribers), Prime Minister Gabriel Attal confirms that unemployment insurance compensation rules will be tightened from December 1.

If he is favorable to this future reform, Bertrand Martinot believes that “it would be good to have a more general reflection on the work” because “work is overtaxed in France, work does not pay enough”. Because according to him, “there are still a lot of problems with encouraging work. It’s not just the subject of unemployment insurance”.

However, “all countries that have returned to full employment have reformed their unemployment insurance”, assures the economist. Especially since “the general context is quite favorable to a reform of unemployment insurance”he argues. “The labor market is working well” with a stable unemployment rate at 7.5% of the active population in the first quarter of 2024 in France (excluding Mayotte), according to INSEE. Gold, “it is not when unemployment is at 10% that we need to make this type of reform”explains Bertrand Martinot.

Afterwards, “there are a lot of vacant jobs”he continues, 535,500 in the first quarter of 2024, in private sector companies (excluding agriculture, individual employers and extraterritorial activities), i.e. a drop of 7% compared to the previous quarter”, according to a Dares study published on May 21st.

Moreover, “we need to straighten out public finances”, he says. Gold, “among the places where we can make savings, there is Unedic and more generally social spending”estimates Nicolas Sarkozy’s former social advisor. “Unedic is certainly in surplus, but we must look at public finances as a whole”, according to him. Finally, he believes that the “system” French “is generally more favorable than in most European countries, even if this is less and less true.”

“It is the combination of all this which leads the government to take another turn of the screw”, thinks Bertrand Martinot. He concedes that the various reforms carried out since 2019, “are quite difficult”. The economist adds that “in the entire history of Unedic, which dates back to 1958, this is indeed the period when we made the most reforms which actually always go in the same direction”namely that of the tightening of the rules.

This Sunday in The galleryGabriel Attal confirms that a “unemployed under 57 will be compensated for up to 15 months compared to 18 today”. Regarding eligibility, “Until now, you had to have worked 6 months out of the last 24 months to receive compensation. In the future, you will have to have worked eight months out of the last 20”adds the Prime Minister. “It’s a fairly considerable tightening, but if we look at the state of legislation in other countries, we’re average”, defends Bertrand Martinot. He recognizes that these measures will particularly affect “young people entering the job market” And “those who have a series of fixed-term contracts” because “the eight-month mark will be more difficult to reach”.

A “senior employment bonus”

For “unblock recruitment for seniors”the government wants to create “a senior job bonus”. So, “an unemployed senior who returns to a job that is less well paid than his previous job will be able to combine his new salary with his unemployment benefit to reach the same salary he had before becoming unemployed.”

“I am waiting for the details of this measure because there has been a system of partial accumulation between unemployment benefit and salary for a long time, but the accumulation is not total”, reacts Bertand Martinot. Nicolas Sarkozy’s former advisor sees this “a measure that would allow seniors to find a job that is a little less paid, but with an incentive for unemployment insurance is one thing, in the French context, is far from stupid, but once again, it is a provision that has existed for a long time”.

In response to François Hommeril, president of the CFE-CGC, the French Management Confederation – General Confederation of Managers who denounces a “senior discount, half price” Bertrand Martinot believes that“we cannot criticize a measure which promotes the employment of seniors and then lament because companies do not employ seniors”.

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