2023-11-21 12:43:10
Paris (AFP) – Emmanuel Macron warned Tuesday that the objective of full employment, which he has set for his second five-year term, “is not yet won”, calling on those who would like a “break” in reforms: “wake up”, “we are not there”.
Published on: 11/21/2023 – 1:43 p.m.
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The unemployment rate recorded a slight increase in the third quarter, to 7.4% of the active population in France (excluding Mayotte), compared to 7.2% in the second quarter, marking at best a pause in the decline, at worst a inversion of the curve in the wrong direction.
The Head of State, presenting at the Élysée a new program to support the rise of certain small and medium-sized businesses, praised his record of reforms and his supply-side policy.
In an allusion to his controversial metaphor of “first in line” and the economic theory of trickle-down, he lamented having been “sometimes caricatured”. “I very sincerely believe that when we help volunteers to succeed, in any case to facilitate the rise, they pull many others behind them,” pleaded the president, displaying his “passion” always “intact” to support the entrepreneurship.
“We see that we are on a plateau. It is not yet won, we are not at full employment,” he added, while welcoming this drop which occurred even though “many of our neighbors who were in a much better situation were stagnating or even had a situation that was deteriorating.”
“In many of your sectors, we still have a lot of unfilled jobs while we are at 7% unemployment. So this means that we have not arrived,” he insisted, at a time when some in the presidential camp are pleading for new, potentially unpopular reforms to achieve full employment.
“I see with concern” the “ambient discourse” which would plead for “going back on the reforms to put them on pause”, added Emmanuel Macron.
“Wake up! I tell you in all sincerity, wake up! We are at 7% unemployment rate”, “we are not there”, he insisted.
President Emmanuel Macron during a meeting with SME leaders, members of professional federations and local elected officials to launch the new ETIncelles program, November 21, 2023 at the Elysée, in Paris © SARAH MEYSSONNIER / POOL/AFP
The Head of State promised to “redouble efforts on major reforms” and to “redouble courage and energy in matters of work and employment”, “because it takes courage to make the reforms.
© 2023 AFP
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