France Travail: 43 billion euros for what result ?

AFP

When the CEO of France Travail is asked about how his agency works, his response is immediate: “Smoke screen” and “lies”. This is the scope of the exchange between Sarah Knafo, Reconquête MP and Thibaut Guilluy, CEO of France Travail (formerly Pôle emploi) since 2023.

In a long post X, the MP details her remarks with supporting figures and sources, and denounces “astronomical salaries, inefficiency, the suffering of employees, the opacity of figures, lavish parties”… by an institution financed by the taxpayer.

⚡️When I spoke about France Travail and its 54,000 employees, the CEO responded “smoke and mirrors” and “lies”. However, I hadn't said anything yet. Exorbitant salaries, scandals, employee suffering, lavish parties, failures… The time has come!⏰[THREAD]⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Oki6DenXOW

— Sarah Knafo (@knafo_sarah) February 3, 2025

An agency funded by French people's money 

Every month, 4% of workers' salaries are deducted to fund the 43 billion euros of France Travail's budget. Of this sum, nearly 6 billion constitute France Travail's operating budget. Like any public institution, a requirement for transparency and efficiency is expected, and as such the MP points out that the results are far from being up to par. 

Thibaut Guilluy: A political career before a strategic appointment 

In her post X, Sarah Knafo highlights the career of the current general director of France Travail, Thibaut Guilluy. LREM candidate in the 2017 legislative elections, his alternate was Brigitte Macron's daughter. “Mr. Guilluy is therefore a politician. He lost the elections, but was quickly rehoused… “ he was successively appointed High Commissioner for Employment in 2020, then general director of France Travail in 2023. He also chairs several public agencies, including the Council for Inclusion in Employment, You Can’t Make It Up, and Companies Commit. 

Disappointing Agency Performance 

France Travail employs 54,000 employees to connect companies and job seekers. However, only 12.9% of unemployed people find a job through its services. A figure so damning that the agency no longer publishes them officially, forcing us to go back to a 2017 INSEE report to obtain them. By comparison, LinkedIn employs only 16,000 people worldwide, but facilitates 11,520 hires every day – without public funding. 

A financial mismanagement highlighted by the Court of Auditors 

Despite this failure, France Travail’s resources continue to increase. The Court of Auditors’ report is unequivocal: “The results obtained by Pôle emploi in terms of return-to-work rates are disappointing”. However, the agency's only reaction was to denounce an “exclusively biased” report. 

Another aberration: while France Travail is supposed to help the unemployed acquire skills, the agency finances private companies to train its own employees in their profession! Worse still, it subcontracts some of its missions to external companies at a cost of 1.2 billion euros in a single year. 

And the managers ? The latest available figure indicates that the CEO received 20,000 euros per month in 2009. Since then, no information on his current salary, but the sums allocated to senior executives remain considerable, with some salaries reaching 14,000 euros per month. 

Absurd expenses and parties financed by the taxpayer 

During a television show, Mr. Guilluy congratulated himself on having celebrated the signing of 40 employment contracts. Meanwhile, LinkedIn facilitates 11,520 per day. The Canard Enchaîné revealed that France Travail organizes lavish receptions, going up to 300,000 euros. A waste that is difficult to justify given the results obtained. 

An inefficient and Kafkaesque service 

France Travail, which is supposed to support the unemployed, is turning into a bureaucratic “infernal machine”, where the training imposed is disconnected from real needs. “I knew it would be of no use to me, but it was mandatory under penalty of being struck off!” says a former beneficiary. 

The advisors themselves are exhausted, forced to prescribe useless services under pressure from their superiors. The Court of Auditors and even the CGT Chômeurs point out this scandal: “The government is therefore diverting unemployment benefits to fatten private companies”. 

Should we rethink this public service ? 

Faced with these excesses, Sarah Knafo asks essential questions: 

• Why pay 54,000 advisors to offer job offers that tons of websites or temp agencies already offer ?
• What is the added value of France Travail in terms of job search, compared to the private sector, since even France Travail buys training from it, or even subcontracts its work to it ?
• Shouldn't we thoroughly reform this inefficient system that wastes public money ?

If the results of France Travail are insufficient, its director persists in defending a system that he has served his entire career. The problem is not that France Travail lacks resources: it's that it squanders them. 

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