The unemployment rate in France fell by 0.3 point in the first quarter to 7.8%, a "fall in trompe-l'oeil" due to the confinement of the second half of March, said Thursday INSEE "without let it reflect an improvement in the job market. "
"This drop in the unemployment rate is the result of a sharp drop in the number of unemployed people who declare themselves available or actively looking for work during the confinement period. The period of confinement has indeed strongly affected search behavior. active in employment (for unemployed people whose privileged sector of activity is at a standstill for example), as well as the availability of people (constraint of childcare for example) ", emphasizes INSEE in its communicated.
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In the absence of containment, this would have been stable
In fact, an unemployed person within the meaning of the International Labor Office (ILO) is a person aged 15 years or more who meets the following three criteria: is unemployed during the reference week; is available to work in the next two weeks; has done an active job search in the past four weeks or has found a job that starts within three months.
"In total, unemployment in the sense of the ILO is therefore lower during this period of confinement, without this reflecting an improvement in the labor market," explains the institute.
"Based on observations for the first 11 weeks of the quarter, the effect of containment on the average unemployment rate in the first quarter is estimated at -0.4 points. In other words, the unemployment rate that would have been observed in the first quarter in the absence of containment would have been almost stable at 8.2%, "said the institute.