Matching between the Labour Force Surveys and the Historical File from Pôle emploi over the period 2012-2017 - Method and first results

On average, in 2017 and in metropolitan France, 2.6 million people aged 15 to 64 are unemployed according to the International Labour Office (ILO) definition whereas 3.4 million are registered with the public employment service (“Pôle emploi”) and classified as “category A” job seekers. Between 2013 and 2017, the gap between these two benchmark measures widened from 0.3 million to 0.8 million. Two populations are likely to explain it: jobseekers registered in category A who are not ILO-unemployed and ILO-unemployed persons who are not registered in category A. The matching between Labour Force Surveys and the Historical File of Pôle emploi over this period allows to identify and count them. In practice, we try to find people from the Labour Force Surveys in the Historical File based on their first name, sex, date of birth and address(es) over the period 2012-2017.

In 2017, of the 2.7 million category A jobseekers reconstituted through matching, 56% are unemployed according to the ILO definition, 20% are in the “halo of unemployment”, 16% are “economically inactive”(excluding halo) and 9% are employed. Conversely, 22% of the unemployed according to the ILO are not registered with Pôle emploi in 2017 at the time of the survey and 11 % are registered, in category B or D. Young people are over-represented among the ILO-based unemployed not registered at Pôle emploi, while seniors are more numerous among the economically inactive (excluding halo) registered in category A.

Between 2013 and 2017, the number of people registered in category A and who are economically inactive, according to the ILO definition, increased (+0.3 million people) and strongly contributed to widen the gap between ILO-based unemployment and jobseekers registered in category A. The share of economically inactive seniors according to the ILO and registered in category A has increased, in a context of the end of job-search exemptions and of the increase in the legal retirement age. Lastly, young people, who are more often ILO-based unemployed and not registered, benefited more from the economic upturn in 2017.