19 JANUARY 2012

President Nicolas SARKOZY announced a series of measures effective immediately http://www.elysee.fr/accueil/ under an Emergency Plan for Work and Training, for a total € 430 million ( € 200 million dedicated to labor and € 230 million for training) supported by a shift in budgetary lines so as « to prevent a deterioration of the public debt » according to the Elysée Palace communication, following a half-day collective bargaining type Summit at the Palace yesterday.

Youth unemployment, up +2.3% to 449 000 job seekers up to November data and year-on-year, will be managed through incentive measures for employers, a one-year zero non-wage cost tax exemption amounting to an estimate € 100 million, which will be taken by decree. 
The administrative burden on companies to set-up reduced working weeks will be simplified to allow for shorter notification, ten days against the current 20, and « the current legal obstacles » which render training illegal for workers who are on reduced working weeks will be removed. 

The training package of the Plan is split in three modules: « train rather than terminate » (€40 million), training for job seekers (€ 150 million), and the reinforcement of job centers human resources (€ 40 million). On this account, and due to the increasing number of long-time unemployed, 38% of the total number of job seekers or about 600 000 according to the Palace communiqué, any person who has been unemployed in the last two years  will be offered a « solution » by job centers, under the form of training, assisted work contracts, or job-seeking assistance. Job centers will hire an additional 1000 staff under short-term contracts to meet demand. 

Other labor market reforms will also be examined by government ministers and collective bargaining parties and the President is due to announce further government decisions on their outcome as well as the financing of the industrial sector and housing, including the financial transaction tax at he end of this month. 

Unions expressed skepticism about the measures positive impact on the labor market, a "too late comer Plan", and said they disagree with the President's conviction that high unit labor costs account for the labor market's stagnation and worsening.  The opposition deemed the Plan to be "insufficient" less than 100 days to the presidential elections, the Socialist Party presidential contender François HOLLANDE is to make public his 2012 program this Sunday.