• This Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron officially presented the “youth engagement contract”, which consists of giving up to 500 euros per month to a person under 26 years of age to train.

  • While 19.8% of young workers under 25 are unemployed, the measure is supposed to fight the unemployment of this particularly affected population.

  • The “youth engagement contract” seems to be struggling to satisfy those first concerned.

This Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron presented the "youth engagement contract", a promise dating from July 2021. An initiative supposed to help reduce youth unemployment, amounting to 19.8% among its working population in the second quarter 2021 according to INSEE. This is by far the age group most affected by unemployment (7.1% of 25-49 year olds and 5.9% of those 50 and over).

A generation which has been professionally affected by the health crisis.

According to the Dares (directorate for the animation of research, studies and statistics), at the height of the first confinement in April 2020, hiring fell by 77% over one year among those under 30 and the number of people registered with Pôle emploi increased by 36%.

Between the end of 2019 and the end of 2020, the number of inactive young people increased by 2.4%.

Will this new measure for youth employment be enough to reverse the trend? 

20 Minutes

takes stock.

How does the “youth engagement contract” work?

From March 1, 2022, all young people under 26 without training or employment for several months will be able to benefit from 15 to 20 hours of support per week.

"An allowance of up to 500 euros per month may be paid subject to income, attendance and acceptance of activity offers made," said the Head of State in a tweet.

This device should concern between 500,000 and 600,000 young people aged 16 to 25

per year.

The aid, initially presented by Emmanuel Macron on July 12 as “commitment income”

,

was initially intended to reach more than a million people, also extending to precarious workers and all young people without employment or training.

Following tough negotiations with Bercy, which sought to limit costs as much as possible, conditions were added.

The change of name ("contract" having replaced "income") insists moreover on the duties to be accomplished in order to receive this aid, distinguishing itself from an RSA for young people - called for by many associations - which would have been given without consideration.

Can this help be enough?

The lack of training, what is the measure supposed to solve, is it really at the heart of the problem of youth employment?

As a reminder, the number of unfilled contracts in France is estimated at around 300,000 for 2.4 million job seekers.

At the heart of the target of Emmanuel Macron's “youth engagement contract” alone, 586,000 people between 15 and 24 are unemployed, according to INSEE.

Antoine Dulin, president of the Youth Integration Commission, de facto regrets certain choices.

Obviously, the amputation of the budget by Bercy is part of it: “Basically, we were betting on aid of a billion, or even a billion and a half euros.

Now, it is only 550 million euros that are added to the finance bill.

Obviously, this is a first big step, but far from the announced objectives.

"

Because of this smaller financial windfall, aid will not be distributed to precarious young people.

In May 2021, the Federation of General Student Associations (Fage) published a survey: “One year later: the urgency to act so as not to sacrifice youth.

»72% of people under 25 indicated that they had encountered financial difficulties since the start of the pandemic, in particular for the payment of charges related to their housing (50%), for a healthy and balanced diet (52%) or again, for menstruating people, to buy sanitary protection (31%).

“There is a lot of work that remains to be done to help precarious young people, who represent the majority of young people with jobs.

They are a blind spot for this measure, ”deplores Antoine Dulin.

In addition, the “youth engagement contract” can only last a maximum of 12 months.

However, in view of the current job market, it is far from being said that after one year of training, young people all get a job.

“What we see with the Youth Guarantee, whose device cannot exceed one year either, is that 40% of young people who leave it have no solution.

It's a shame to have reproduced the same biases, ”notes the expert.

What avenues to improve the integration of young people into employment?

First, solve the problems raised in the previous question, that is to say increase the budget to cover more young people and remove the one-year limit, supports Antoine Dulin.

Income alone also questions, and would need supplements.

“With 500 euros per month, we are far from being able to find housing or being able to afford additional health care,” adds Antoine Dulin.

A roof and good health that should be "guaranteed by law when following this kind of contract", he believes, without necessarily increasing said monthly income, even if "we would have liked the salary to be aligned with that of the RSA (€ 565.34 for a person living alone) ”.

This is the question posed by this measure - and these shortcomings: the RSA for young people.

For the moment, it is impossible to touch the RSA at less than 25 years.

"But basically, this is a first breach on this question", enthuses Antoine Dulin.

Another sign of encouragement, youth unemployment - if it reaches higher proportions than in other age groups - is the only one to fall compared to the second quarter of 2020, a year ago, according to the 'Insee.

The percentage of young people under 25 fell by 2.8 points, against a national increase of 0.8 points.

"The policies put in place and the revival of growth will solve some of the problems," said Antoine Dulin.

Economy

Emmanuel Macron announces a "Youth Engagement Contract" of 500 euros per month in exchange for training

Economy

Social re-entry: A "commitment income for young people" and many questions

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