In terms of communication, government and employers have not skimped on resources. Through an interview, a forum or publicity, everything is done to promote the plan “One young person, one solution”, a government device intended to tackle the scourge of unemployment. Nearly 6.7 billion euros must be mobilized, in the form of business aid: employers who hire young people under 26 on permanent contracts or on fixed-term contracts of at least three months will be able to receive 4,000 euros on a year. Exceptional aid of 8,000 euros is also released for the recruitment of a work-study student. Business leaders have decided to lend a hand to the device. In the Sunday newspaper (JDD) , 35 CEOs (Carrefour, Vinci, Crédit Agricole, Korian, etc.) are committed to offering “100,000 jobs before the end of January” unemployed young people, who will in principle be accessible on the Internet platform “One young person, one solution”, created by the executive. A round number, intended to mark the spirits… What is it really?
“The risk is that business leaders benefit from public aid”
This Tuesday, the platform contained some 64,200 jobs, which is not negligible but will not be enough to “absorb” the 519,300 unemployed under 25 registered with Pôle Emploi. A little less than 11,000 offers only concern full-time permanent contracts, ie 17% of the total. In the JDD, the CEOs are committed to working extra hard by the end of the month, but voluntarism weakens when we contact the companies concerned. “Honestly, I couldn’t tell you how many offers we posted on the platform, cautiously answers the HRD of a signatory company. Anyway, we don’t use the government site, which works quite poorly, and prefer to go through our own channels. “
The management of Vinci (100,000 employees) ensures that 2,000 job offers have been posted: these are in fact advertisements already present on the group’s site for several weeks, which have been transferred to the site government. As for Korian (19,000 employees), we are not committing to a number of permanent or fixed-term contracts, but we plan to hire 200 more apprentices than in 2020 (or 650 in total). Crédit Agricole promises to hire 5,450 young people, mostly on a work-study basis, a slight increase compared to previous years. BNP Paribas does not plan, for its part, to accelerate the pace of hiring (2,000 work-study, 2,000 permanent contracts, as in 2020). “Beyond the numbers, the issue is the profile of the young people hired, points out economist Eric Heyer. If these are only people who have graduated from high schools or who already have professional experience, it will not make much sense. The term “young” covers very different situations, depending on the level of qualification. “
With “One young person, one solution”, the government is taking a largely marked path: signing checks to companies in the hope that they will hire is a method that has been tried and tested. The last device also looks a lot like a tool created nineteen years ago, at the instigation of Minister François Fillon, the Contrat jeunes en entreprise (CJE). The CJE aimed to promote the employment of low-skilled workers by paying a monthly bonus (up to 400 euros) to companies hiring a young person on a permanent contract, full-time or part-time. In five and a half years, 441,000 young people have been hired. In 2008, a Senate report burned down the CJE. “The measure had very little influence on the net creation of jobs, start the report – barely 7 net creations for 100 subsidized jobs – and a limited impact on the stabilization of the employment of its beneficiaries due to the numerous “early” terminations of contracts; 75% of breaks occur within twelve months of the contract, including 20% within three months in the hotel and restaurant sector. “
Even more serious, according to the Senate, “The implementation of this device has probably been accompanied by significant windfall effects in nearly 50% of cases, the aid being paid to employers who, without it, would have made the same hiring decisions”. Or several hundreds of millions of euros thrown out the window… Will the Macronist device suffer the same disappointments? “Traditionally, this type of aid generates two types of perverse effects, summarizes Éric Heyer. The risk is first of all that business leaders who intended to hire no matter what will benefit from the aid. It is the windfall effect. Then, we know that the age limits benefit some and harm others: when you set a limit at 26, you may improve the lot of young people below this limit, but you greatly deteriorate the situation. ation of others. This is the threshold effect. “
People under 25 cannot receive the RSA
Unions, associations and specialists would have preferred the government to do it differently, starting by extending existing social protection nets to young people who do not have them: today, those under 25 cannot receive the RSA, except exception. The Youth Guarantee, a scheme designed to help 18-25 year olds in precarious situations find a job or training, provides them with monthly assistance capped at 497 euros. “This sum is in no way a solution to precariousness, denounces Pierre Garnodier, of the CGT of the unemployed. It is above all a way for the government to respond to requests from associations claiming an RSA for those under 25. What we are asking for is compensation under the unemployment benefit to help return to work for all young people, including first-time applicants. “
“One hundred thousand young people today leave the school system without any diploma, notes Marie-Aleth Grard, president of ATD Quart-Monde. These are people most often in a very precarious situation, who must be sought. The State must strengthen its aid systems, focusing on social and very social housing: you cannot properly follow a training course if you sleep in your car or in unsanitary housing. “
