The number of job seekers registered in category A – without any activity – jumped 8.7 % in the first quarter, an increase of 273,100 registered, according to data published by DARES this Monday, April 28.
The figures panic. At least, apparently. The number of job seekers registered in category A – without any activity – jumped 8.7 % in the first quarter of 2025, which represents a spectacular increase of 273,100 registered, according to data published by the Dares (Ministry of Labor) this Monday, April 28. In total, 3.4 million people are therefore listed in this category.
“The number of registrants increases sharply, without this increase reflecting the conjuncture of the labor market”however, wants to defuse dares on the sidelines of the publication of these figures. Paradoxically, in this first quarter of 2025, the statistical series is actually heckled by the full employment law. To understand these disturbances, you have to hold your breath.
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First, since 1is January 2024, Dares must deal with the wave of new registrants automatically at France work. According to the law passed in 2023, all the beneficiaries of the RSA, but also young people accompanied by local missions and people with disabilities followed by Cap Emploi are registered automatically to be supported by the agents of the public establishment.
Figures to take with tweezers
In total, nearly 1.1 million people find themselves catapulted in the tablets of the old employment center. To digest this massive influx, France Work has created two new categories at the start of the year: the F, predominantly “social”, for people who are most distant from employment, and category G, for applicants and beneficiaries of the RSA awaiting orientation. In the first quarter, 26,600 people were registered in category F and 809,300 in category G. Some of these automatic registrants have already been reoriented, bringing the figures of the historical categories. “There are 80,000 people, mainly RSA beneficiaries, who are waiting for registration”details France Work, which hopes to complete this digestion before summer.
By dismissing these newcomers, the number of job seekers in category A increased by 5.4 % this quarter and 9.7 % over a year, Dares said. If we group together categories A, B and C, the number of registrants increases by 2.3 % (+ 4.3 % over a year).
But these figures are still to be taken with tweezers, warns the Dares. In a warning published this Monday, the ministerial statistical service explains that this increase is also jostled by a modification of the methods of updating the registrants. In accordance with the full employment law, each new registrant must now sign a commitment contract with France Work which defines its rights and duties. Between his registration and the signing of this contract, each job seeker is registered in category A and is not required to update his status, which once again comes to artificially inflate figures in the category. According to Dares estimates, which neutralize these two biases, the increase in the number of registrants at France Work in category A linked to the economic market is only 0.8 %. As well as the number of people registered in categories A, B and C which would increase only 1.3 %.
Presented in this way, the increase in the number of job seekers could almost pass for reasonable. Almost. In an economic context struck by several announcements of social plans, Dare figures still suggest some disturbing facts.
A low youth employment rate
The increase in the number of registrants for two consecutive quarters first confirms a threatening trend in the labor market. Emmanuel Macron’s displayed and repeated hope to achieve full employment (an unemployment rate of less than 5 %) gradually stretches. Then on the employment of young people. The increase in category A is particularly marked among those under 25 (+ 34.3 %) and less among 25-49 year olds (5.4 %) and 50 and over (2.6 %). If it is difficult to distinguish the share of this increase which is the degradation of the labor market from that due to statistical changes, it should still worry Matignon.
On April 15, in a press point organized on the sidelines of a conference on public finances, François Bayrou already alerted to a much lower youth employment rate in France than with its European neighbors. A few hours later, Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet, the Minister of Labor, had given a room in the machine by claiming that France “Do not have enough young people who work, with integration into the job market which is difficult”. Statistical complexities or not, the future promises to be heckled for employment figures.
