In Q4 2021, the unemployment rate according to the ILO definition decreased by 0.6 points compared to the previous quarter, to 7.4% of the active population. This drop is the result of a substantial increase in employment (+154,000 as a quarterly average after already +267,000 in Q3) and a moderate downturn in the active population (–48,000, in reaction to a brisk increase of 305,000 in the previous quarter). These changes have particularly affected young people: their unemployment rate fell by 3.6 points over the quarter to 15.9%, returning to the lowest levels of earlier cycles at the end of the 1980s and 1990s, and their employment rate increased by 2.5 points over a half-year, to 33.8%, thus reaching its highest level since 1991, mainly due to the effect of sandwich contracts...