We are talking about the suffering of students, employees, restaurant owners and even intermittent entertainment workers faced with the health crisis and its economic repercussions. But the period is also ...

France: confinement keeps the long-term unemployed a little further away from returning to work

An agent from a Pôle Emploi agency in a Marseille district takes care of welcoming an unemployed person.

Text by: Lou Roméo Follow

7 mins

We are talking about the suffering of students, employees, restaurant owners and even intermittent entertainment workers in the face of the health crisis and its economic repercussions.

But the period is also hard for the long-term unemployed, who represent almost half of the 6 million job seekers registered in France.

50.4% of them have been unemployed for a year or more, even before the start of the crisis caused by Covid-19.

And the succession of confinements further weakens their hope of finding work.

Publicity

The association

Solidarités Nouvelles Face au Chômage has

noticed: since March 2020, despair has set in among the job seekers it supports.

We created a toll-free number last May to replace Pôle Emploi, which was overwhelmed

," says Didier Lebret, volunteer at SNC and coordinator of the telephone platform created by the association.

Since then, we have had to record around

1,000 calls, a third of which turned into support.

What emerges from conversations often boils down to a feeling of resignation.

“

The long-term unemployed think that they are even more badly placed than before the crisis on the job market,

summarizes Didier Lebret, who fears that some completely give up looking for work and to be supported.

They tell themselves that those who have just lost their jobs will have an advantage over them, that employers will prefer the more 'recent' job seekers.

A vicious circle

This is indeed one of the characteristics of long-term unemployment: the longer the duration of the job search, the more the chances of finding a job diminish, creating a sort of vicious circle.

Maggie is well aware of this.

Since losing her position as association director ten years ago, and despite the fifteen applications that she continues to send each month to carefully selected companies, she has still not found a job.

“

After my dismissal, I was a caregiver for sick relatives, and I'm happy I did,

” she explains.

But the problem is, when you haven't worked for several years, recruiters consider you to be no longer competent, as if you haven't done anything for that entire period.
As I no longer work, it is considered that I am no longer good for the job market, it bites its tail.

►

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Household debt: the other Covid crisis?

A complex situation, which the Covid-19 has further aggravated, observes Claire Vivès, sociologist at the Center for Employment and Labor Studies.

The pandemic will have multiple effects,

" she analyzes.

One of them will be the increase in unemployment, and since it is known that the long-term unemployed take longer to find a job than the more recently registered unemployed, their unemployment time will increase even further, even in the future. recovery case.

Half of the unemployed in France have been unemployed for a year or more

Especially since the Covid-19 accelerates the transformation of the labor market, which sometimes isolates the long-term unemployed even more.

The generalization of teleworking plays against Maggie, for example.

Since I'm 58 and I left the world of work it ten years ago,

she laments,

it is assumed that I can make telecommuting, that I do not master the tools.
But I can learn and evolve, I spend my time training

!

An observation confirmed by Claire Vivès.

“

We tend to think of the job search as a queue, everyone waiting their turn,

” she says.

But it doesn't work that way for everyone

“Among those unemployed in France, in categories A, B and C, nearly 50.4% have been for a year or more, according to the

latest figures published by Dares

The massive phenomenon has grown steadily since its appearance in the late 1970s. But it does not affect everyone in the same way.

Those most likely to see their job search drag on are in fact the most fragile people: few or no graduates, looking for a job as a worker or employee, in areas with few offers. employment (sensitive urban or rural areas), aged 50 and over and having health or disability problems, according to

a report

by the Economic and Social Committee of June 2020. But behind the statistics, all social categories are concerned : among the 4,000 people supported each year by SNC, all profiles and all situations appear.

►

See also:

Unemployment insurance in France: partial entry into force of the reform on July 1

Difficulties that are piling up

Maggie, for example, has several diplomas, including a bac + 5 level. But this qualification still slows down her hiring, because it calls for levels of remuneration that put off companies.

For this 58-year-old woman, the difficulties are piling up, despite her optimism and determination.

“

I wouldn't mind leaving eastern France for a more dynamic region,

” she says.

But my travel is hampered by a housing problem

:

it is impossible for me to stay in a city with the 500 euros of aid per month that Pôle Emploi pays me.
Even if I found a job, I wouldn't be able to pay the rent in the first month, before I got my first salary.

Her job search is also disrupted by an unstable internet and telephone network, and by the lack of public transport near her house: the train station has closed.

This limits her movements, and therefore the social and professional relationships that she could establish.

The accompaniment of the pair of volunteers from the SNC association nevertheless helps them to stay the course, thanks to the active listening procedures in which they have been trained.

Because according to Didier Lebret, as soon as unemployment drags on - one is long-term unemployed after a year of looking for a job, in the sense of the International Labor Office - isolation and loss of confidence in self-established, to the point of often causing health problems.

A pair of volunteers to support and listen

The association therefore provides job seekers with the support of a pair of volunteers, responsible for "coaching" them, with cover letters, CVs or social networks workshops, but above all, to listen to them and encourage them.

“

They support me, it allows me to think, to know that they are there to help me when I need it, it's a listening and a presence,”

says Maggie.

But these devices are not well known, many things exist but the structures are often poorly coordinated with each other

Among the people supported by SNC, 60% on average find a job after 9 months of follow-up.

The “

Territory zero long-term unemployed

” initiative is

also experimenting in several departments with the creation of permanent jobs, paid at the minimum wage and for social utility.

But

according to the OFCE

, 800,000 jobs disappeared in 2020 in France.

And according to the International Labor Organization, globally, that's the equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs that were destroyed in 2020.

France: confinement keeps the long-term unemployed a little further away from returning to work

France: confinement keeps the long-term unemployed a little further away from returning to work

A vicious circle

Half of the unemployed in France have been unemployed for a year or more

Difficulties that are piling up

A pair of volunteers to support and listen

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