France: President announces youth employment measures

On 29 September 2009, the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, announced a plan aimed at cutting the very high unemployment rate among young people, and giving them more independence and responsibility. Measures include a minimum income for young workers, a right to training or a job for all those aged 16 to 18, and stricter rules on work placements.

On this page:
High youth unemployment
Minimum income for young people
"Pre-recruitment"
Work placements
Right to training or employment for 16- to 18-year-olds
Improving apprenticeship
Other measures
Reactions.

High youth unemployment

Young people in France have traditionally faced difficulties in entering employment, and the French youth unemployment rate has consistently been above both the overall French average and the EU average for under-25s. As the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) notes in its 2009 Employment Outlook (published in September): "Youth employment prospects are a critical issue in France. Even before the onset of the current economic downturn, the youth unemployment rate in France was already significantly above the OECD average. During the downturn it has increased [to] more than twice the overall unemployment rate, and in the second quarter of 2009 almost one youth in four was jobless compared with one in 10 among all workers. Decisive actions are needed to prevent the scarring effects of high and persistent youth unemployment."

According to Eurostat, the unemployment rate among under-25s in France stood at 24.9% in August 2009, compared with a national average rate of 9.9%, and an EU under-25's average of 19.8%.

In January 2009, President Sarkozy stated a wish to take steps to alleviate the persistent labour market problems faced by young people, making them less dependent and giving them more autonomy. He asked a committee chaired by Martin Hirsch, the high commissioner for youth affairs, to draw up proposals for a new youth policy based on this principle. The Hirsch report, published in July, forms the basis for many of the measures announced in September. According to Sarkozy, his "youth plan" means "rights, duties, freedom and responsibility" for young people, rather than dependence and handouts.

Minimum income for young people

The "active solidarity income" (revenu de solidarité active, RSA) is a state benefit, introduced in June 2009. It is paid to people who are in employment, but whose earnings are low, and brings their income (including any other benefits received) to a minimum level, which is dependent on their family situation. The aim is to encourage people to work, rather than just receive benefits, and to combat poverty among the "working poor".

At present, the RSA applies generally to people over the age of 24, with younger workers eligible only if they have children. It will now be extended to all workers under the age of 25, if they have worked for at least two out of the past three years. Working students under the age of 25 will also be eligible, if their employment takes precedence over their studies. It is expected that 160,000 young people will benefit from the extension of RSA, at a cost of €250 million per year.

According to Sarkozy: "It is profoundly incongruous that a young person who has started employment early should not be entitled to the RSA. I want young people to feel that they are respected, that they have the same rights as other people and therefore that the same duties can be asked of them as of others."

 "Pre-recruitment"

In the French public sector, it is a long-standing practice that young people can be "pre-recruited", with the state financing their education and training in return for a commitment that the young person will work in the public sector, for example as a teacher, on completion of their studies.

In the private sector, such pre-recruitment arrangements are not forbidden by law, but there is no specific legislative framework for them. The Hirsch committee found that this uncertainty has limited the development of the practice and it has recommended the establishment of clear rules in this area. The Government believes that pre-recruitment can help deserving students with inadequate funds to pursue their studies, especially on vocationally oriented courses, while providing employers with access to suitably prepared employees.

The Sarkozy plan therefore suggests the creation of a pre-recruitment contract, which could be signed by an employer and a young person under the age of 26. Under the contract, the employer would finance the young person's studies, and they would be bound to follow the course of education/training assiduously and, on qualification, to work for the employer for at least a previously agreed fixed term.

The President has asked trade union and employers' organisations to open negotiations over a national agreement on this issue, which would form the basis of legislation.

Work placements

Students' work placements in companies (known as stages) are subject to considerable regulation, with legislation laying down rules on their duration, content and remuneration (which must be at least one-third of the national minimum wage after two months of placement). However, the Government believes that placements are being abused by some employers, which use them as a substitute for employing normal workers on full pay, or offer placements to young people who are no longer students.

The Sarkozy plan aims to ensure that placements are used solely to give students work experience as a fully integrated part of a course of education or training, enabling them to link their studies to practice. Placements that do not meet these requirements will now be explicitly prohibited. A provision to this effect has been inserted into a vocational training law that was adopted by Parliament in October 2009, and a more detailed decree will be issued within six months.

Right to training or employment for 16- to 18-year-olds

Compulsory education ends at the age of 16. Each year, around 100,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 18 leave the educational system without qualifications. Sarkozy regards tackling the problem of unqualified school-leavers as an "absolute priority", as it represents a "socially unjust, economically costly, black hole". He will therefore introduce a right for all 16- to 18-year-olds to training - either in the education system or combined with work - or a job, accompanied by an obligation on the public employment services to offer this group training or work, and provide them with advice and assistance in this area.

Improving apprenticeship

To make apprenticeships more attractive, an information campaign will be launched, aimed at young people and their parents. Apprentices will receive additional benefits, similar to those currently granted to students, such as discounts on transport and leisure facilities, or access to subsidised university restaurants. Further, the civil service will take on more apprentices, while there will be trials of special forms of apprenticeship for university graduates.

Other measures

The Sarkozy plan includes a range of other initiatives aimed at getting young people into work or training, such as:

• public services offering guidance, information and assistance on finding suitable vocational training opportunities will be consolidated and strengthened;
• an existing scheme, the "integration into social life contract" (contrat d'insertion dans la vie sociale, CIVIS), whereby young people facing particular difficulties in finding jobs are paid a benefit while receiving special assistance to enter the labour market, will be strengthened, for example through a significant increase in the benefit;
• under an experimental scheme, 6,000 young people will receive a one-off payment of €2,500 aimed at overcoming obstacles to finding a job. The idea is that the grant will pay for training or meet costs such as learning to drive or finding accommodation if the young person needs to move to work;
• another experimental scheme will enable young people to receive directly (with the parents' permission) certain family allowances currently paid to their parents, in order to increase their financial independence; and
• a "civic service" scheme will be introduced, whereby young people can carry out voluntary work of a socially useful nature, which will receive recognition in their education and working life - the Government hopes that there will be 10,000 participants in 2010, eventually rising to 10% of young people.

Reactions

The overall cost to the state of the measures in the Sarkozy plan is put at €500 million a year. The necessary implementing legislation will be introduced in the coming months.

Trade unions and organisations representing students and young people have generally given the plan a lukewarm reception. The consensus is that the measures constitute a first step to improving the position of young people, but that further action is required rapidly. The CFDT trade union confederation said that the extension of the RSA minimum income scheme to under-25s would help to end the "unjust discrimination" suffered by young people in access to some social benefits, but added that the requirement that young people must have worked for two years out of the previous three in order to be eligible "risks limiting very severely the scope of this measure".

This article is based on material provided by Christophe Boulay, European Employment Review correspondent for France.

European Employment Review 430 (EER 430) contents