The Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire warned on Friday that it was to be expected that the health crisis linked to the coronavirus would lead to "bankruptcies" and "layoffs" in France "in the coming months".
"There will be bankruptcies and there will be layoffs in the coming months," warned Bruno Le Maire on Europe 1, while the government plans to gradually reduce from June the support system for partial unemployment that had allowed '' So far avoid waves of layoffs. "Many sectors are very hard hit" by the crisis and "even if the economy rebounds, it does not restart at the same rate" as before, explained the minister.
"It is not a normal situation to have the State which supports 100% of the wages"
In this context, the government plans to reduce the coverage of short-time working "so as to encourage a return to activity since that is what will ultimately allow us to create jobs and create prosperity" , said Mr. Le Maire. "It is necessary to encourage the resumption of activity, it is not a normal situation to have the State which supports 100% of the wages", he underlined. According to an estimate by the Ministry of Labor, the total number of requests for partial unemployment authorization since March 1 has reached 12.7 million since March 1, while 8.6 million workers would have benefited from the system which made it possible to avoid an explosion in unemployment in France, whose economy has been hit hard by the coronavirus.
A defund of partial unemployment will result in layoffs, had warned on Wednesday François Asselin, president of the Confederation of small and medium-sized enterprises (CPME), which asks the State to wait until September before any "significant" reduction in its takeover charge. Medef also opposes this reduction in care.