At first glance, it’s an arcade game store like any other, wedged between a Fnac, an O’Tacos restaurant and a decoration shop, in the heart of Rosny2, one of the largest shopping centers in Ile-de-France. Here, on weekends, we come with the family, toddlers in pushchairs, to swallow a hamburger or a slice of pizza, before going to fill our fridge in the gigantic Carrefour hypermarket on the ground floor. A temple of consumption for a middle class more anxious about the end of the month than about the end of the world. Behind large bay windows, interactive terminals welcome visitors, who can then embark on an escape game. The mission of the players? Save, at the risk of their life, a sleeping cosmonaut. A little further on, virtual reality headsets are available. Admission is free, says a large blue sticker affixed to one of the windows.
Welcome to “Yookan, revealer of the future”. Nothing to do with a new spot for metaverse fan: we are in a local branch of Pôle emploi. A kind of third place of 1000 square meters financed jointly by the State and the regional council of Ile-de-France. This unique initiative in France lifted the curtain just a year ago. You don’t come here to polish your CV or respond to an ad, but to come out of your shell, fill the void, imagine a desirable future and reconnect with reality. Behind the game, it is a question of discovering one’s soft skills: in the language of recruiters, these are all the skills that never appear on a CV, such as the capacity for initiative or risk-taking, team management. .. With the virtual reality helmet on her head, you can imagine yourself as a crane operator, ambulance driver, bus driver… This mother came here by chance last spring with her son Dylan, a somewhat lost high school dropout: ” He was looked after by Michel, a coach, who accompanied him and even found him a CDD for the summer. That put him back on track. Now I come to see Michel from time to time for the thank.” After several appointments, some are oriented towards training, others benefit from immersion courses in local companies. Nacera Torche, the director of Yookan, assures us: structures like this are needed to bring back to the world of work all those who have been away from it for too long.
Quietly, France is experiencing a real employment revolution. While the word unemployment has disappeared from political contests, it is no longer even inscribed on union banners during major demonstrations. In companies, HR directors are tearing their hair out to attract and retain their best talent. Skilled job shortages are no longer just about restaurants, human services, or smart tech and coding heads. They affect all sectors to varying degrees. 4.5 million new positions could be offered by the end of 2023, according to a recent study by Adecco. In government, the objective of full employment for the end of the five-year term is at the top of the pile. Full employment, two words that smack of the bell bottoms of the 1970s, when France still believed in social mobility. During the last presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron made it a marker, citing the term six times in his program and his great speech at the Porte de Versailles, the day before the second round (against only once in 2017).
The return to full employment is the miracle solution: less social spending, more revenue from contributions, more income, more growth and less public deficits… But to reach the Holy Grail, we will have to bring the unemployment rate from 7.4% today to 5%, a level not seen since 1978! Easier said than done. Admittedly, it fell by almost two points during the previous five-year term. Except that in this area, it’s like a marathon, the last kilometers are the most difficult. And the most expensive. “We will pick them up with our teeth,” promises Paul Bazin de Jessey, the deputy director of Pôle emploi.
Complicated, then. First, because the bad wind of recession is starting to blow in France. The latest figures published by the Ministry of Employment had the effect of a small drop of cold water sliding down the back: for the first time since spring 2020, the number of unemployed people stopped falling in the third quarter of 2022. This is not a disaster, but a small warning. All categories combined, 5.2 million people still point to the Pôle Emploi lists. And the next few months could be tougher. In the 2023 finance bill, the government decided to ease the pedal on the financial “bonuses” for learning put in place at the height of the pandemic in the summer of 2020. “The reality is that of the 700,000 job creations that France has recorded since 2019, 400,000 are apprentices”, calculated Bruno Coquet, economist and employment specialist at the OFCE.
The Macronian promise is also complicated to keep because to get there, it would be necessary to bring back to employment between 800,000 and 1.2 million people who are currently unemployed. “However, there, we touch populations who not only have problems with qualifications, but also often big social problems”, testifies Bertrand Martinot, the former general delegate for employment under Nicolas Sarkozy and adviser to the Montaigne institute. . “This means working a lot more on the employability of these women and men, who are also victims of peripheral obstacles such as the absence of housing or illiteracy…”, explains the economist and Renaissance deputy Marc Ferracci .
These famous “peripheral brakes”, we experience them on a daily basis at Humando, a subsidiary of the Adecco group. On the second floor of a soulless building in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, the view is breathtaking on the flying saucer of the Stade de France and the many construction sites launched to host the Paris 2024 Olympics. Around the table, Floyd (22 years old), Khalilou (35 years old) and Marie-Marguerite (36 years old) have been supported for almost two years by the teams of this interim integration work company, whose local branch specializes in trades of the building. Years of hardship behind them and finally a horizon. All three were followed closely, trained, sent on a mission to the neighborhood sites. All three have found a permanent position as a form setter. “At first, I thought I was being offered a job as a hairdresser… Now, I’m a team leader, it’s rare for a woman to work in the building industry,” says Marie-Marguerite with a big laugh. , a single mother.
Those who arrive here have been sent by Pôle emploi, local missions or associations. More than half have no income, a third do not speak French. So we have to start from scratch. Work on self-confidence, interpersonal skills, punctuality, relationships with others. On the very idea of chaining five days of work. “We put the CV aside, that’s not what counts at the start,” says Mohand Hebbache, Humando’s development director. The integration managers take care of everything, from the paperwork to find accommodation, childcare, finding a computer to do all the administrative procedures online… Obviously, the supervision rate is calibrated for, with 1 permanent for 12 temporary workers, against a ratio of 1 for 30 or 50 in a traditional temporary company. “It’s not enough to put someone in front of a job, you have to do everything else”, specifies Jean-François Connan, the social and environmental impact director of the Adecco group. After the two years of follow-up, they must leave the structure. But the results are worth the investment. The rate of return to employment reached 70% and nearly 45% landed a long-term job. “Me, I think about creating my box and then, maybe I can also take care of insertion?” asks Floyd. Khalilou signed the lease for his first home last month. For two and a half years, he had been living in a hotel room with his wife and two children.
They got away with it, but for the others, including the two million RSA recipients, stuck in precariousness, the problem remains. “This is the real blind spot of the government’s objective. We are talking about unemployment insurance reform, and that will have an effect for those who are close to employment, but for a very large majority of those who have fallen to the RSA, the reform does not concern them at all”, points out Bertrand Martinot. A report by the Court of Auditors published at the start of the year dismantles the system: costly, ineffective in terms of support and return to work. On average, seven years after entering the RSA, only 34% have left it and among them, only a third have found a stable job, according to the sages of rue Cambon.
At Pôle Emploi, they say they want to intensify the “specific” courses for the long-term unemployed, who still represent 34% of those registered, and for this, rely more and more on private structures. Like Talent Solution (formerly Tingari), a human resources firm, subsidiary of the Manpower group. “We respond to calls for tenders and 95% of our turnover comes from public authorities”, explains Bénédicte Guesné, in charge of public procurement activities. Recently, the company won a call for tenders from Pôle Emploi for a program called “Parcours emploi santé”, intended for the long-term unemployed. “We do very special work with them before even talking about employment. We put them in contact with doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists”, continues Bénédicte Guesné. The structure already uses around thirty psychologists and has even recently hired a nurse for its Breton site. It is then remunerated according to the various programs which can last from 3 to 15 months between 500 euros and 2000 euros per person accompanied, in the event of a return to permanent employment.
A cost that is already making people cringe. France is one of the countries that spends the most on back-to-work aid, just over 2.5% of GDP each year compared to 1% in Germany, underline Ifrap experts in a recent study. “Frankly, in the field, we spend a lot and it’s generally ineffective. Between what Pôle emploi, local missions, associations, regions and departments are doing, it’s a total mess. As it doesn’t work, everyone sends back the hot potato”, laments Bertrand Martinot.
Creating a one-stop shop, better coordinating all actions and reconnecting everyone is the objective of France Travail, Olivier Dussopt’s other major project, along with unemployment insurance and pensions. One more on the very busy agenda of the Minister of Labor… and full employment.
