The evolution of French Labour Market Policy

We now spend 30 billion euros on unemployment benefits, about 15 billion euros on active measures (excluding training) and about the same on professional training. In addition, various social contributions break costs us almost 20 billion. While spending on unemployment benefits and active measures have been rising steadily since the 1970s, early retirement schemes started following from the mid 1980s onwards. Various implicit and explicits subsidies were introduced at the end of the 1980s and have represented the fastest rising item.

Looking at the same policies in terms of their relative weight in the budget shows that in relative terms spending in unemployment benefits has remained stable at about 30-40%. Spending on Training and active measures have relative to other spending items been decreasing. The big winner of course is the social contributions break which now accounts for more than 20% of the spending...

Source: French Employment ministry