Job Applications at End of Month (Demandes d'emploi en fin de mois - DEFM).
Unemployment:
This series is not published in the Bulletin.
The Regional Service of the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Service régional de l'Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques - INSEE) is responsible for the statistical processing and publication of the data. These are obtained from the records of the National Employment Agency (Agence nationale pour l'Emploi - ANPE), which collects information on job applications.
The series of job applications at end of month (DEFM) covers the whole Department of French Guiana through two employment offices of the Agency (at Cayenne and Kourou). It covers all persons aged 16 years and above residing in the territory, who meet the definition given below and who are registered at the Agency.
The series is monthly.
Unemployment: Persons considered as unemployed are those without work, who are immediately available for work, who are seeking full-time employment (over 30 hours of work per week), of an indefinite duration, who are registered at the Agency.
More specifically, the following are classified as unemployed in so far as they satisfy the criteria of the definition: first jobseekers and re-entrants to the workforce; persons seeking a post as trainee in an enterprise; and employable disabled persons. Persons receiving retirement or invalidity pensions may, in principle, be counted among the registered unemployed although this rarely occurs owing to the fairly restrictive conditions imposed as regards income levels. Jobseekers with short-term employment (less than eight hours per week) continue to be registered as unemployed during this period. Responsibility for the loss of the last job does not affect classification as an unemployed person.
The following are not considered to be unemployed: students or schoolchildren seeking work during vacations; persons laid off; persons with some form of minimal employment of more than eight hours per week (all these persons are classified as jobseekers and not as unemployed in the statistics of the INSEE Regional Service). Also excluded from the statistics are persons over 60 years of age who benefit from the system of guaranteed income and persons on strike.
Registration: Registration with the Agency is voluntary; however the fact that receipt of unemployment benefit is dependent on registration creates a strong incentive for registering as a jobseeker. Register maintenance is carried out monthly by mail. Towards the 25th of the month, the jobseeker receives an updating card which must be returned to the local employment office with an indication of any change in status as jobseeker. This system of updating by mail has gradually replaced the system requiring jobseekers to report personally to the employment office. No automatic procedure to recall jobseekers exists. Jobseekers may however be requested to report to the Agency and those who receive benefits may also be requested to report to the Departmental Directorate of Labour and Employment which is responsible for the supervision of job seeking.
Deletion from the register: The following persons are deleted from the register of unemployed and consequently from the unemployment statistics: jobseekers who are temporarily unable to work owing to illness or accident, where the Agency has been notified of the interruption and it lasts more than 15 days. (These jobseekers are only temporarily deleted from the register.) However, if the temporary unavailability for work is due to leave, holidays or removal, authorisation of absence is usually granted by the Agency and the jobseekers continue to be counted among the unemployed.
Also deleted from the unemployment register are: jobseekers who refuse to fulfil the register maintenance requirements and those who do not respond to a request to report to the Agency; persons who systematically reject several job offers without a valid reason; jobseekers who commit fraud or make false statements; and those who do not take active steps to find work.
Jobseekers who participate in State-assisted training/readaptation schemes, such as community-related work programmes (Travaux d'utilité collective - TUC), sandwich training, training programmes for persons aged 16 to 25 years and training periods for the long-term unemployed; as well as participants in job creation measures, such as assistance to unemployed persons in setting up a business; as well as jobseekers who systematically or excessively refuse offers to participate in such schemes and measures are likewise deleted from the register of unemployed.
The following persons may also be deleted and therefore excluded from the statistics: unemployed persons in receipt of benefit who are over 55 years old who may, at their request, be exempted from seeking work while continuing to receive unemployment benefit up until they obtain a retirement pension.
The reference period for the count of the unemployed is the last day of the month. Up to September 1986 the updating cards were processed between the 3rd and the 6th of the following month. Job applications that had not been received or had not been compiled by then were not included in the statistics. Since October 1986, the statistical processing has been postponed for about ten days so that most of the entries and exits at the end of the month are taken into account.
The unemployment data are compiled by the Regional Service of INSEE which processes the computer records on job applications transmitted monthly by the Agency. Changes in the category of jobseekers are taken into account immediately; differences arising from the updating of the monthly returns are adjusted the following month. The accounting equation of flows and stocks is checked each month.
Unemployment rates are not calculated from this series.
Not available.
Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE), Service régional de la Guyane: "Bulletin statistique" (quarterly) (Cayenne, 1988). Each publication contains data for the previous quarter, the current year and the previous year (for both sexes combined).
Methodological publication:
INSEE, Service inter-régional Antilles-Guyane: "Les dossiers Antilles-Guyane, Données sociales, no 11" (Pointe-à-Pitre, 1986).