How France Is Fighting Long-term Unemployment: What an Innovative Experiment Can Teach Advanced Economies

Date: 

Thursday, February 22, 2018, 4:15pm to 5:30pm

Location: 

Center for European Studies: Lower Level Conference Room, Adolphus Busch Hall

Laurent Grandguillaume, President, Territoires zéro chômeur de longue durée; Deputy, French National Assembly (2012-2017)

Hosted by Arthur Goldhammer, Chair of the Visiting Scholars Seminar: New Research on Europe, CES, and Co-Chair, Contemporary Europe Study Group, CES, Harvard University. 

Laurent GranduillaumeHigh unemployment has been a major issue haunting France and several other advanced economies since the financial crisis. Long-term unemployment, in particular, is affecting more than 2 million individuals in France and has been a primary concern to successive governments. In 2016, the Parliament unanimously approved a law titled “Territories with Zero Long-Term Unemployed.” The bill was designed to encourage local governments and businesses to identify new jobs and fund them by transferring long-term unemployment benefits to pay the wages of the long-term unemployed who took those jobs. The bill was tested in several regions of France with stagnant growth and high rates of long-term unemployment. Laurent Grandguillaume, who helped craft and pass the bill, will discuss the experiment's content, its implementation, and its results so far.

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