Rising unemployment: without a profound rethink of work, we will not solve the problem

Published on April 30, 2025 at 1:11 p.m.

Reading time: 3 min.

Unemployment is up in the first quarter, according to figures published by France Travail on Monday, April 28. While the government is increasing its calls for more work, for business leader Julien Leclercq, author of "Journal d'un salaud de patron," the solution lies elsewhere.

This article is an op-ed, written by an author outside the newspaper and whose point of view does not reflect the editorial staff's views.

An increase of +8.7% for some, +0.8% for others… The figures from France Travail have just come in, and they are not good. This was expected since the announcement of the RSA reform, now included in the calculations, but that doesn't take away from the bad news: even without this administrative explanation requiring eighteen years of statistician studies (I quickly gave up), the number of job seekers would have continued to climb.

And as always, figures and technical debates obscure the essential truth: our work model is running out of steam. As long as we refuse to rethink this model and fundamentally review the way we guide young and old alike, no lasting improvement will come.

The proof? While unemployment rises, the number of jobs to be filled will rise again, as it does every summer. While six million people are looking for work, a million positions remain vacant, and we will see ads popping up in store windows faster than the zeros in the bank account of Carlos Tavares [the departing boss of Stellantis, with a 35 million euro golden parachute, Editor's note] the day he announces his early retirement.

It's no longer life that has to adapt to work, it's the other way around.

The first pillar to rebuild is work itself. No, the French haven't lost the desire to invest themselves. They've lost the desire to do so under any conditions. Work-life balance has become essential; it's no longer up to life to adapt to work; it's the other way around. This is true for younger people. It's not that they don't want to work; it's that they need to understand why, for what, and for whom.

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The permanent contract is no longer a holy grail. Many entrepreneurs testify to the rejections they face. After decades of glorifying the individual, freedom has become a priority requirement. What was once the preserve of bosses is now expected at all levels.

Companies must reinvent "life at work." Many will say, "Start by paying better." This is understandable: too many essential jobs no longer allow for a decent living. But the effort cannot rest solely on companies, the majority of which do not have multinational margins. At the risk of making people cringe, I would add that the difference between earned income and social assistance is sometimes so small that it's a deterrent. The employees who have shown me how much they lost by coming to my restaurant to do extra work (always declared) cannot be counted on the fingers of one hand. This is not ideology, it's concrete.

It's just as crucial for companies to make their framework more flexible. The number one requirement today is freedom. Flexible schedules, four-day work weeks, unlimited vacations... The tools exist to transform our businesses and make them attractive. Some sectors, such as restaurants and construction, struggle to recruit, while a few innovative players are attracting and retaining employees. They prove that solutions exist.

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The toolbox is full; it's a matter of choosing the right ones. The tragedy of the 35-hour week wasn't the 35-hour week itself—whatever one may think, there's a very collective desire to work less—it was wanting to impose it on everyone, which made no sense. A hospital is not a communications agency, and certainly not a bakery. Dialogue, listening, and collective intelligence are the keys. It's not about multiplying table football tables, but about reinventing a social contract based on trust and responsibility. Succeeding in finding a balance between individual aspirations, praised to the skies for decades, and the collective interest, or at least that of the company.

For a long time we are considered too young and very quickly too old.

Of course, this alone won't solve unemployment. But a million unfilled jobs is already a huge number. And I assure you, turning away clients we've worked so hard to attract due to a lack of workers, when so many people are looking for work, is an unbearable waste.

Of course, that won't be enough. As long as we train three accountants and ten thousand journalists a year, there will be too many journalists and not enough accountants. And I will continue to receive 300 applications in one week after a LinkedIn post for the press agency I run, and no resumes for my restaurant, despite SUVs posted on the Eiffel Tower.

Rising unemployment: without a profound rethink of work, we will not solve the problem

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