Assessing France's Territorial Employment Policies: Progress and Persistent Disparities

The Cour des comptes' 2026 report offers an in-depth analysis of France's territorial employment policies, revealing that despite encouraging overall employment results, significant regional disparities persist. The report focused on four diverse regions — Hauts-de-France, La Réunion, Pays de la Loire, and Occitanie — to evaluate how well national employment policies adapt to local economic and social realities. It highlights that employment strategies remain largely centralized, often missing the specific needs of local employment basins, including rural areas and disadvantaged urban neighborhoods. The 2023 law establishing a "network for employment" aims to integrate state actors, France Travail, local agencies, and regional bodies toward shared objectives, with 125 local roadmaps formulated by September 2025. However, delays in setting up local employment committees have hindered full territorial integration.

Complementing this, the Spaser program initiated in 2022 exemplifies local innovation, prioritizing sustainable procurement to boost social inclusion and ecological transition. In 2024, the Métropole recorded €282.4 million in purchases, with 73% sourced locally and nearly half from small and medium enterprises. Environmental contract clauses significantly increased from 52% in 2021 to nearly 89% expected in 2025. Social inclusion targets also focus on embedding social employment clauses in 40% of contracts by 2025, up from 28.19%, resulting in over 300,000 annual work hours for individuals in insertion programs.

Together, these insights underline France’s mixed progress: while national policies have established collaborative frameworks and ambitious sustainability targets, truly territorialized employment strategies remain a work in progress. Further alignment with local contexts and acceleration in committee formation are needed to fully address uneven employment challenges across regions.