The first details of the government’s big project. Soon a single gateway for all job seekers: the outlines of France Travail, which is to succeed Pôle emploi and better coordinate all employment actors, were presented on Wednesday in a report. Emmanuel Macron is counting on this transformation – alongside social negotiations on a “pact for life at work” by the end of the year – to achieve full employment, i.e. an unemployment rate of around 5% in 2027 (compared to 7.2% in the 4th quarter of 2022).
“The objective is to better understand and support unemployed people for a faster return to work and a reduction in recruitment difficulties”, summarized the High Commissioner for Employment Thibaut Guilluy, who led for several month this prefiguration mission of France Travail. The implementation of France Travail will be done gradually by 2027 but its creation will be effective at the beginning of 2024 after a bill – which will also include the reform of the vocational high school – presented “by the summer”, according to the Minister of Labour, Olivier Dussopt.
This renovated public employment service should allow Pôle emploi and all the actors (the local missions which will become “France Travail jeunes”, Cap emploi which will become “France Travail handicap”, as well as the communities, CAF, Maisons of employment, associations, etc.) to operate in a network with common methods on the reception of people and interconnected computer systems. The starting point of the report is that of a system that has “operated for too long in silos generating ‘holes in the racket’, ‘duplicates’ and ‘breaks in the course’ at all levels”. “Given the fragmentation of actors and procedures, we do not have the possibility of identifying all the people in need of an integration process or support. Only 40% of RSA recipients are registered with Pôle Emploi,” the report points out.
This registration with France Travail, which will be done via a digital portal or the network of physical counters of France Travail operators and its partners, would allow an initial diagnosis with the aim of being quickly put in touch with a support referent ” to avoid answering the same questions 20 times,” according to Thibaut Guilluy. “An RSA beneficiary waits 150 days between his registration with CAF and his first support interview. We want to reduce this period to a maximum of one month, ”he explains.
Each person registered with France Travail will sign an employment contract at the start of their course. For RSA recipients, intensive support of 15 to 20 hours per week of integration, on the model of the youth employment contract, has begun to be tested in 18 departments. In the event of non-compliance with these commitments, the report proposes “more progressive and more effective” sanctions with a “suspension remobilization” which would allow the allowance to be suspended and then paid without loss if the course is resumed.
According to the Court of Auditors, one out of two RSA beneficiaries does not currently sign a reciprocal commitment contract and the actions proposed, “very weak” (less than two per contract), do little to help the beneficiary “in a concrete way” . “These activities can be company immersions, refreshers, training or the removal of obstacles such as childcare (30% of RSA beneficiaries are single parents)”, explains Thibaut Guilluy. This transformation will involve mobilizing 2.3 to 2.7 billion euros over 2024-2026, “the main thing being human resources”.
If he did not want to give a figure on the recruitment of integration advisers, the High Commissioner noted “that the countries where the unemployment rates are the lowest, such as Germany, have one adviser for 100 people, where we have one for every 150”.
Another challenge is to help companies, especially VSEs, to recruit in each employment area.
“Business teams are everywhere: at Pôle emploi, in consular chambers, vocational training operators, but there is no collective organization, lamented Thibaut Guilluy. This can have a big effect. When you visit 100 companies, you create 10 more jobs. »
