“Encouraging work” will require “difficult decisions”, warns Attal

The Prime Minister indicated that he would convene "in mid-March" a government seminar "dedicated to the question of work" in particular to "prepare the major decisions" to be taken in this area.

For three months, the executive has demonstrated its desire to further tighten unemployment insurance rights, after two controversial reforms to this effect in 2019 and 2023.

“This path towards full employment, (...) we have not yet completed it,” said Gabriel Attal at the company’s headquarters. Numalliance, in Saint-Michel-sur-Meurthe, hoping once again that work “pays better and always more than inactivity”.

“This will require difficult decisions and we are ready to make them,” added the head of government.

Accompanied by Ministers Catherine Vautrin (Labour) and Roland Lescure (Industry), he previously went to the France Travail agency (formerly Pôle emploi) in Epinal where he spoke with unemployed people or income beneficiaries. of active solidarity (RSA) now conditional on hours of activity or training.

“We will not give up as long as all those who can return to employment remain unemployed,” assured Gabriel Attal, defending the reform of the RSA, which should allow “to be better guided towards employment” thanks to 15 to 20 hours of training, internship, integration, in return for their allowance.

In total, in the 18 departments which experienced this reform, 21.300 RSA beneficiaries have integrated these “support pathways”. The number of departments concerned will increase to 47, before its generalization in 2025, he confirmed.

The reform is "colossal progress" according to the head of government: in the 5 months following their entry into a professional career, "one in two supported people found a job" whereas before the reform, "after seven years at the RSA , only one person in 10 has found lasting employment.

The Prime Minister wanted to "accelerate" France Travail's checks on job seekers, particularly in professions in shortage, which will triple by 2027, going from 500.000 per year to 1,5 million.

Gabriel Attal also welcomed a new assessment of the fight against “social fraud” which he had strengthened when he was Minister of the Budget: in 2023, “the adjustments for undeclared work reached nearly 1,2 billion 'euros', compared to 800 million in 2022.

Eager to keep an eye on education, his former portfolio, Gabriel Attal placed, before returning to Paris, a wreath on the grave of his distant predecessor Jules Ferry at the Côte Calot cemetery in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges .