New €500 aid for young job seekers in France to start this summer

Unemployed people aged under 25 in France will become eligible for €500 per month in benefits, President Emmanuel Macron has said.

The aid will become available from the end of summer for under 25s who have no training, or income, are not working, and are unable to access unemployment benefits as they have not worked previously.

The monthly aid will be given on condition that recipients agree to take part in an intensive job hunt.

The details of the measure are still being finalised, but the financial support could impact thousands of young people who are currently unemployed.

Figures from national statistics bureau Insee show that a fifth (20.2%) of people aged 15-25 were unemployed in 2020.

These figures include people in this age group defined as eligible to work or looking for work by the Bureau de Travail.

Figures from work statistics bureau Dares show that in the first four months of 2021, there were 749,700 jobseekers aged under 25 signed up with registration service Pôle emploi.

This age group saw a 7.1% increase in job seekers signing up with the service in the previous 12 months, compared with a 4.5% increase among 25-49 year olds, and a 4.8% rise among over 50s.

In the same period there were over 5.5million job seekers nationally.

The president was criticised in 2018 for implying that it was easy to find work in France.

After a young man told him he was having difficulty finding work, Mr Macron said that if he was “ready and motivated” all he had to do was “cross the road” and ask local businesses.

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