REPORTAGE
The health crisis continues and before us, it is the economic crisis which seems to be looming. As announced in the Hauts de France region, where one in five entrepreneurs plans to dismiss, according to the results of a survey conducted by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the region. This figure even rises to 32% in the hotel and restaurant industry. And in some small businesses, firing may just mean lowering the curtain.
Without customers, "zero" recipe
"So here we are in the bar, 'The base back', in Lille. We have been closed for almost two months today," sighs Johan, the manager, at the microphone of Europe 1. Dust on beer drawers, barrels in the trash, and no financial revenue for several weeks. "We are at zero! Nothing comes in," he despairs.
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Separate from your employee and put the key under the door, yes, he will have to do it if the pandemic continues. But above all, he feels abandoned. "I am jaded because we only talk about restaurateurs, and they are doing better than us ... We are the forgotten ones! I agree to close, one, two months, even a year if necessary If we are told for a year, no bar, no box, nothing: OK, but then help us, because it will not last like that indefinitely. In any case, financially no! "
Tens of thousands of jobs affected?
The very small structures are not the only ones concerned; larger companies are also planning to lay off. Not surprising for Philippe Hourdain, president of the CCI in Hauts-de-France. "We expected this because a very large number of cafes, hotels, restaurants, which do not yet have a date of resumption of activity, plan to lay off. This represents tens of thousands of jobs in Hauts-de -France".
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Impossible to give a precise figure but the president of the CCI thinks that there will be less 100.00 redundancies, in a region which counts 1.4 million employees in the commercial sector.