This rate has decreased by 0.9 point to 5% in rural areas and rose by 1.1 point to 16.9% in urban areas, says the HCP, which has published an information note on the situation of the labor market in 2021.

This increase in unemployment hides disparities in all categories of the population, notes the same source. Indeed, the unemployment rate has increased respectively by 0.6 point for women, from 16.2% to 16.8%, while this rate has virtually stagnated for men (from 10.7% to 10.9%).

By degree, the unemployment rate rose by 1.1 percentage points among graduates, from 18.5 percent to 19.6 percent, and fell from 5.6 percent to 4.6 percent among those without any degree.

By age, the unemployment rate increased by 0.6 percentage points to 31.8 percent for those aged 15 to 24 and by 1.1 percentage points to 19.6 percent for those aged 25 to 34.

Thus, the number of unemployed grew by 79,000 people between 2020 and 2021 to 1,508,000, which corresponds to a rise of 5.5%. This increase is the result of a rise of 120,000 unemployed in urban areas and a decrease of 41,000 in rural areas.

As for the volume of underemployment, it grew during the same period from 1,127,000 to 1,003,000 people (550,000 in cities and 453,000 in the countryside). The rate of underemployment was thus 9.3% at the national level (8.8% in urban and 10% in rural zones).