PRESS RELEASE

12 July 2021

PUBLIC THEMATIC REPORT

PRESERVING EMPLOYMENT: THE FRENCH MINISTRY

OF LABOUR AND THE HEALTH CRISIS

Faced with the health crisis and its economic and social consequences, the French Ministry

of Labour, Employment and Professional Integration has provided wide-ranging and rapid

support to companies and employees. In addition to emergency measures implemented in

the early stages and extended beyond the original term, from summer 2020 a range of

measures meeting various objectives aimed at taking into account new emergencies and

preparing for the post-crisis period were implemented. The resources committed to the

Ministry in charge of employment are unprecedented: for an executed budget of €13.4

billion in cash-

limit appropriations in 2019 and €31.8 billion in 2020, the General Delegat

ion

for Employment and Vocational Training had €29.8 billion available at the beginning of 2021,

not including the financing by the Unédic of certain measures or the additional

appropriations provided during the year.

Wide-ranging emergency measures implemented with responsiveness

Central government's involvement in the fields of employment and work was focused on a

few strong measures: short-time working to secure companies and employees and avoid

redundancies, FNE-Training to strengthen the vocational training of employees placed on

short-time working, and maintain rights to compensation in order to avoid pushing certain job

seekers into a precarious situation. The organisation of working conditions in the context of

an epidemic has also been a major issue for the Ministry of Labour since the beginning of the

crisis. This situation has also enabled more regular dialogue between central government and

its partners, both nationally and locally, which should be maintained after the health crisis.

With regard to short-time working, France has retained the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis

by immediately putting it at the heart of its response favouring employment, with

considerable financial resources made available (€33.8 billion planned for 2020 includin

g

€22.6 billion from the central government budget and €11.2 billion from Unédic) and one of

the most favourable regimes in Europe.

A profusion of measures in September 2020 at the risk of a certain level of dispersal

In summer 2020, the Government announced a new package of measures. Mainly integrated

into the Recovery Plan, they should replace the initial emergency measures. However, the

duration of the health crisis has complicated the implementation schedule of said measures.

Various measures have been superimposed, which explains, for example, the deployment

difficulties encountered in the second half of 2020 vis-à-vis extended short-time working

(APLD), intended to take over from the highly favourable short-time working regime

introduced at the beginning of the crisis. The "

♯

1 jeune 1 solution" (1 young person, 1 solution)

initiative has implemented a number of measures for young people at the risk of a dispersal

of resources and saturation of government services. The decision to mobilise a very large

number of initiatives, both old and new, since the summer of 2020 implies significant

management work and monitoring by central government departments and the other

stakeholders responsible for this. It is appropriate in this context to ensure that the resources

available to implement it are appropriate.

An immediate job preservation goal met despite certain limits and uncontrolled cost

Initial signs suggest that short-

time working, the actual cost of which exceeded €26 billion in

2020 alone, has avoided

–

or at the very least delayed

–

some of the negative impact of the

crisis on employment, but the management of exiting the crisis will be decisive in drawing up

the final balance sheet. The wind fall effects benefitting companies that would not have

needed it and payments in pure loss to unsustainable companies appear, after an initial

analysis, relatively limited. The extension of unemployment rights during the lockdown

periods, which should amount to €3.7 billion, was an indisputably fair measure, with a m

ore

nuanced assessment concerning the measure for performers in the entertainment industry.

The impact of the recruitment assistance benefit on the entry of young people into the labour

market since September 2020 will have to be analysed more closely.

Monitoring, a major issue that was underestimated

Despite the mobilisation of personnel and the undeniable results obtained, the challenges vis-

à-vis monitoring were not properly understood by the public authorities. The audit plan was

designed based on a quantitative logic and a willingness to demonstrate a speedy response to

fraud, to the detriment of the quality of this response. This experience should encourage the

French Ministry of Labour, Employment and Professional Integration to make a cultural

change in its report to abuse and fraud, a change already carried out in other jurisdictions such

as the DGFiP or Urssaf.

The Court makes 10 audit recommendations in its report.

Read the report

PRESS CONTACT:

Emmanuel Kessler



Communication Director



T

01 42 98 55 62



emmanuel.kessler@ccomptes.fr

@Courdescomptes

ccomptes

Court of Accounts

Court of Accounts