The number of unemployed (category A) recorded an exceptional increase over one month in April (+ 843,000, or + 22.6%) but which is explained to three quarters by the transfer, due to confinement, of applicants for jobs previously registered in reduced activity (B and C), announced employment center Thursday. In total, the workforce in categories A, B and C only increased by 209,300, or + 3.6%, which nonetheless constitutes "the largest monthly increase ever recorded" since the creation of these statistics in 1996 and for the first time it crossed the six million mark at 6.064 million.
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Due to full confinement in April, many employees on short contracts (temporary or fixed-term), who were already registered in category B (reduced activity of less than 78 hours) or C (more than 78 hours) no longer worked everything and switched to A. As a result, after an already historic increase of 7.1% the previous month, the number of job seekers in category A increased by 22.6% to 4.575 million, a new record. However, the number of those in reduced activity (B, C) fell sharply (-29.9%).
"Thus, three quarters of the increase in category A is related to job seekers in reduced activity (categories B and C) the previous month and who have ceased all activity", explains Pôle emploi. The remaining quarter is the result of the difference between direct entries in category A of people not registered in March and exits from Pôle Emploi. However, with a fall of 35%, the exits from Pôle emploi reached "their historic minimum" according to the operator, due to a fall in hirings, entries in internship or training.
Enrollment at Pôle emploi also fell sharply
Although they remain above exits, registrations at Pôle emploi also fell sharply (-19%). "Some people have undoubtedly, given the situation, delayed their entry into the job market," said Pôle Emploi. Entries for the end of the interim mission or end of the contract fell (-18,000 and -4,600) "but remain at high levels".
In a press release, the Ministry of Labor ruled that this rise in unemployment "was foreseeable because April is the first month entirely marked by confinement" which led "to non-renewals of interim assignments or short contracts as well as 'a decrease in hirings on short-term contracts ". "Unemployment therefore increases because companies, in the current context, no longer hire, but not because they lay off massively," concluded the ministry.