Besancon (AFP)

Faced with the arrival of 750,000 young people on a degraded labor market at the start of the school year, the government presented Thursday a plan to 6.5 billion euros over two years, "unheard of" according to Jean Castex, with a flagship measure aid of 4,000 euros to promote 450,000 recruitments by January.

"The government has decided to put the package on youth employment because we know that in times of crisis it is those who + die + the first", underlined the Prime Minister by presenting this plan "a young person, a solution "from Besançon.

To help companies that are hesitant to hire at the moment, the government, as announced by Emmanuel Macron on July 14, is introducing a bonus for any young person under 25 recruited between August and January on a contract of at least three months.

This "contribution compensation" will be 1,000 euros each quarter for a maximum of one year.

"If you have no activity, even if you have aid, you will not have any hiring", warned François Asselin (CPME), for whom a lot will depend on the effectiveness of the recovery plan expected at the end August.

The unions had them warned against "windfall effects" and pleaded for the aid to be reserved for hires on long contracts.

The plan also includes aid, already in force since July 1, for the hiring of young people in work-study programs by the end of February: 5,000 euros for an apprentice or a professionalization contract under the age of 18, 8,000 euros for a major.

For Jean Castex, who visited an apprenticeship training center in the morning where he was able to discuss with many young people, apprenticeship is "at the heart of French contradictions". "We know that it works and yet it still remains when we have not succeeded. It is imperative to promote it", he insisted.

- Return of assisted contracts -

In addition to 100,000 additional places in civic service, this plan provides for 300,000 "insertion paths" for young people furthest from employment and 200,000 additional places in training.

For young people failing in higher education, 100,000 new qualifying or pre-qualifying training courses will be offered "in the professions of the future" (ecological transition, health, digital, priority sectors of the recovery plan).

In addition, the plan marks the return of "assisted contracts" in the commercial sector, which had been abolished in 2017 by the new majority (except overseas), but targeting them on young people furthest from employment.

60,000 "employment initiative contracts" (CIE) are thus provided for for young people encountering particular difficulties of integration, part of whose salary is financed by the State.

In the non-profit or public sector, the subsidized contracts ("Skills job routes", numbering 94,000 in 2019) will be increased by 60,000 in 2021.

"Perhaps in the past, with the contracts helped, we were somewhat in the statistical treatment of unemployment. There we will be very attentive to the quality of the support," promised the Minister of Labor, Elisabeth Borne.

The plan also provides for 50,000 additional entries in 2021 in Youth Guarantee, an integration mechanism managed by the local Missions for young people without employment or training with reinforced support for one year and a monthly allowance of 497 euros.

However, "to set the objectives, to release substantial means, it is good, but if we do not concern ourselves with their implementation, we will not achieve the expected result", warned Jean Castex. "And for that, there are not thirty-six methods: the first is that of social dialogue", he added, wishing that it be deployed at the level "of the territories".

In each region, the regional council, the State and the social partners will thus define, with the economic actors, the priority sectors towards which to focus the training effort.

© 2020 AFP