What is Emmanuel Macron’s real record on unemployment? In his interview Wednesday, December 15, the President of the Republic welcomed the fact that unemployment is at its lowest level for 15 years. An observation not at all shared by Julien Odoul, spokesperson for the National Rally: “This is all wrong. Today in our country we have six and a half million unemployed people of all categories, including those in training. This means that the number of job seekers has not dropped since Emmanuel Macron has been at the Elysée “, he said on franceinfo.
In reality, neither Emmanuel Macron nor Julien Odoul are completely wrong for a simple reason: they are not talking about the same thing. To measure unemployment, there are two indicators: figures from Pôle Emploi and those from INSEE.
For example, when Julien Odoul says that the number of job seekers has not fallen since 2017, he relies on the figures from Pôle Emploi and he is saying quite true. The total number of registrants has remained fairly stable around 6.5 million people. A figure that should be put into perspective because it includes all categories of Pôle Emploi, including, for example, people on sick leave and who are not obliged to look for work.
But unemployment has still fallen, if we look at what the figures of INSEE, put forward by Emmanuel Macron, are saying this time. The statistical institute is based on different criteria defined by the International Labor Office. With these criteria, the unemployment rate in France is today at 8%, i.e. the lowest since 2009.
However, behind this figure, quoted several times by the president, also hides disparities because if unemployment is at its lowest for almost 15 years, job insecurity has increased, in particular because of an increase in part-time work. .