The resumption of the pandemic thwarts the scenario of an economic recovery and weighs on the morale of decision-makers, whose index is dangerously close to that recorded in 2011 (-56), after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.
Since July, it has lost 6 points to settle at -48 points in September, according to the Viavoice barometer for HEC,
Le Figaro
and
BFM Business
*.
Over the past 18 months, the index has fluctuated between -11 and -29 points (this peak coinciding with the movement of "yellow vests"), before dropping in March, going from -22 points to -41.
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Unsurprisingly, employment projections are alarmist.
For 91% of decision-makers, the number of unemployed will increase in the coming months, which corresponds to an increase of 24 points since March.
The perception of professional opportunities is just as bleak: 79% of executives consider that they will be weak and, among them, 27% think that they will be non-existent.
The trend is the same for the "general public" since 89% of them anticipate an increase in the number of job seekers (+ 21 points since March) and 75% have little hope for their chances. to advance their career (33% of them do not consider any professional opportunity).
In addition, nearly 50% of decision-makers and French people believe that their employees are not motivated.
Prospects nourished by a succession of safeguard plans for employment, caused by the health crisis.
Between March 1 and September 27, 454 PSEs were launched in France.
This is almost twice as much as the 267 job saving plans recorded over the same period last year, according to Dares, the statistics service of the Ministry of Labor.
Concern for the standard of living
The standard of living in France emerges from the barometer as the second source of concern, both for the “general public” and for decision-makers.
Only 14% of executives and 13% of all French people envisage an improvement while 72% of them anticipate a deterioration within a year.
However, these fears have increased significantly among decision-makers: 34% of them already made this observation last year, against 49% for the “general public”.
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The projections on the personal financial situation are also pessimistic but less marked, since 47% of decision-makers and 52% of French people think that it will deteriorate in the coming months.
Rare positive data from this barometer, these results seem to have improved since the start of the pandemic since fewer of them consider this deterioration (-1 point for the "general public" and - 4 points for executives, since March ).
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Study carried out from September 25 to 29, 2020, on a general public sample of 1,002 people representative of the population aged 18 and over residing in mainland France and of 400 decision-makers representative of the executive population residing in mainland France.