Good news on the employment front in Grand Est. According to the latest INSEE figures, the unemployment rate in the region fell slightly, by 0.1%, to reach its lowest point since 2008, at 6.9% the active population in the 1st quarter. That is the same level as that of all metropolitan France.
If the Grand Est is doing better than Occitanie (unemployment rate of 8.5%), Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (8%) or Hauts-de-France (8.7%), its unemployment rate is still higher than that observed in the other metropolitan regions, either in New Aquitaine (6.2%), Normandy (6.6%), Pays de la Loire (5.6%), Île-de-France (6.6%), Burgundy-Franche-Comté (6.2%), Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (6%), Brittany (5.7%) or Centre-Val de Loire (6.6%).
Even within the Grand Est region, there are still disparities. For example, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.3 points in the Haute-Marne (6.1%) and 0.2 points in the Meuse (7.1%) and Haut-Rhin (6.6%), but increased in the Ardennes (9 4%), a department that has the highest unemployment rate in the region together with Aube. Finally, unemployment remains stable in the other departments.
Insee also specifies that “at the level of employment areas, the trend is also stable, except in Forbach and Bar-le-Duc, where the unemployment rate falls by 0.4 and 0.3 points respectively.” Forbach is, despite everything, “the only workplace in the region where the unemployment rate remains above 10% of the active population.” On the contrary, Epernay and Haguenau are the areas of employment, the unemployment rate is the lowest with respectively 4.6 and 4.4% of the active population.
4,000 additional jobs in the 1st quarter
The drop in the unemployment rate is linked to job creation in the region. Payroll employment there increased 0.2% in Q1 over year-end 2022, or approximately 4,000 additional jobs, and 0.7% over Q1 2022. For comparison , salaried employment increased by 0.3% at the national level. in the quarterly evolution and 1.3% per year.
Lastly, it should be noted that 15,990 new companies were born in the Grand Est in the first quarter. Thus, the creation of companies fell by 2.3% compared to the previous quarter, “but remains at a high level”, emphasizes INSEE.
“Although the number of micro-enterprises is increasing and represents two thirds of the new registrations, this increase does not compensate for the decrease in the creation of traditional companies. The decline is stronger at the level of France (-5.0%), where micro-enterprises are also declining”, concludes the statistical institute.
Source: BFM TV
