Labour shortages: We are hard at work, France tells Commission

French Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt rejected on Monday (12 June) the European Commission’s criticism that his government was not doing enough to reduce labour shortages, replying instead that “we’re hard at work”.

Dusspot spoke on the sidelines of an Employment and Social Affairs Council (EPSCO) in Luxembourg, which brought together ministers from the 27 EU member states

The ministers debated the Commission’s recommendations on the European Semester, which effectively aims to coordinate member states’ economic, social and budgetary policies.

In the case of France, the recommendations, published in May, warned of “macroeconomic imbalances”, with a specific focus on labour shortages France is currently experiencing.

According to the 2023 figures from Pôle emploi, France’s employment agency, 61% of recruitments are deemed “difficult”, a statistic of historic proportions. In 85% of cases, recruiters complain about an insufficient number of candidates, while 79% report unsuitable profiles.

At the European level, one company in four has been forced to cut production due to recruitment problems, according to the European Trade Union Institute.

While France “has boosted investment in the upskilling and reskilling of workers”, the Commission found that several barriers remained, notably the low participation of unskilled people in the labour market compared to other European countries.

In addition, “labour and skills shortages in sectors and occupations key for the green transition […] are creating bottlenecks in the transition to a net-zero economy” by 2050, as per the EU Green Deal objectives.

But Dussopt rejected the criticism. France is “hard at work”, he replied to a question from EURACTIV, pointing out that over the past year, the government has “carried out a  number of labour market reforms”, including the revision of unemployment insurance rules, implemented on 1 February.

Under the reform, the duration of unemployment benefits will be reduced by 25% as soon as the national unemployment rate falls below 9%. The status quo will be restored if the unemployment rate exceeds 9% or rises by more than 0.8 percentage points over a quarter.

The minister also highlighted the renewal of the French Skills Investment Plan (PIC) and the Full Employment Bill as effective levers for dealing with recruitment issues.

“It’s a subject we’re working on [but] with optimism insofar as our economy continues to create jobs […]. The march towards full employment continues,” Dussopt concluded.

In a speech in April, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the start of “a hundred days of appeasement”, involving the launch of a new “life-at-work pact” that would aim to “give meaning back to work, and improve working conditions” – all the while gearing up for re- and up-skilling in the context of the green transition.

Labour shortages felt all over Europe

On top of rising costs, Europe’s companies are facing another worry – the lack of skilled workers – which is becoming more prominent than ever before.

Companies all over the continent lament their increasing inability to find workers in a historically …

[Edited by János Allenbach-Ammann/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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