Paris (AFP)

The number of unemployed (category A) fell slightly by 0.4% in the first quarter in France (excluding Mayotte), or 14,500 registered less, to 3.801 million, the Ministry of Labor announced on Tuesday.

Over one year, the increase remains 6.3%, or 224,000 additional unemployed.

Due to a 0.8% increase in the number of job seekers in reduced activity (categories B and C), the number of job seekers with or without activity (A, B and C) is stable at 6.013 million and growing by 4.7% over one year, says the Statistics Department (Dares).

After the sharp drop in the third quarter of 2020 (-11% in category A) and that still clear in the fourth (-2.7%), "we have overall stability in this first quarter", commented Tuesday morning the Minister of Labor , Elisabeth Borne, on BFMTV-RMC.

"We have stability despite health restrictions that were gradually put in place over the first quarter. So it also shows that ultimately there are many sectors of the economy that continue to operate," she said.

In detail, by age group within category A in mainland France, there is a decrease of 0.7% among 25-49 year olds but an increase of 0.3% among young people and a stability among young people. the over 50s.

By region, there is a decrease in most regions, with the exception of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (+ 1.1%) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (+ 0.6%).

In terms of flows, there is an increase in entries in ABC (+ 3.4%) which is mainly explained by returns from inactivity and the end of contracts.

Entries for economic redundancies (-9.6%) and contractual termination (-7.5%) are down.

The number of departures is almost stable, due to a decrease in discounting defaults (-5.9%), offset by an increase in departures for entry into internship or training (+ 13.8%) and retakes declared jobs (+ 3.8%).

In the first quarter, 675,900 people registered with Pôle Emploi were not required to look for a job.

They are either not immediately available and unemployed (category D, for example: training, professional security contract, illness), or provided with a job (category E, for example: business creation, subsidized contract).

Over this quarter, the number of registrants in category D increased by 5.5% and that of those registered in category E by 2.8%.

© 2021 AFP