Would France be without a deficit with the German employment rate, as Eric Lombard asserts?

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– Éric Lombard assures us: “If we had the same employment rate as Germany, France would no longer have a deficit.”

“If we had the same employment rate as Germany, France would no longer have a deficit.” In an interview with Les Échos on January 22, 2025, Éric Lombard launched an appeal: the French must work more, in order to “preserve our social protection model”. A desire of the Minister of the Economy which often comes up on the table, recalls BFMTV. According to the OECD employment rate in France was 69,2% in the third quarter of 2024, compared to 77.4% across the Rhine.

To achieve this, several options are on the table. In addition to the elimination of a public holiday or the increase in the weekly working time of employees, it is above all the return to employment of a greater number of French people which must be considered. These new taxpayers will contribute and therefore increase the State's tax and social revenues. A virtuous circle in short. An effort must therefore be made in this direction, particularly for a particular population: seniors. The employment rate of 60-64 year olds is much lower in France than in Germany.

Around 140 billion euros in additional tax revenue.

In an interview with Les Échos, Gilbert Cet, president of the Retirement Orientation Council (COR), explained that “if we had in France the employment rate of the Netherlands [82%, NDLR]I estimate that public revenues would be higher than they are by at least 140 billion [d’euros] per year ». To achieve this result, the COR started from the principle that the new jobs will be occupied either by low-skilled people, part-timers or young people. We could, therefore, envisage a growth of 10% you PIBaccording to COR.

Get out your calculators. If we assume that these projections are realistic and applying the average deduction rate in France of 45%including taxes, social contributions and various taxes, the surplus of 10% of GDP could bring in 140 billion euros approximately additional tax revenue.