Reducing Social Inequalities through the Implementation of Effective Right to Employment: The Case of French Experiment “TZCLD”

Abstract

The “Territoire Zéro Chômeur de Longue Durée” (TZCLD) project—Zero Long-Term Unemployed Territory (ZLTUT)—is an experimental initiative that has been running in France since 2016. Its aim is to fight long-term unemployment on a territorial scale by reintegrating into the labor market people who have been out of work for a long time. TZCLD (ZLTUT) is a public policy measure based on an original conception of employment and work, and on innovative tools and methods for reintegrating long-term unemployed into the labor market. This project is based on three key ideas. Firstly, “no one is unemployable.” Secondly, “there is no shortage of work.” Thirdly, “there is no shortage of money.” Respecting and articulating these three precepts make effective the right to employment. We show that this original “job guarantee” experiment helps to reduce social inequalities.

1. Introduction

France has been strongly marked by mass unemployment since the 1980s. From less than 2% in the 1960s, the unemployment rate has quadrupled in around 20 years. It exceeded 10% in the 1990s and reached 7.4% at the end of 2023. To eradicate this phenomenon, numerous measures have been put in place by the public authorities. The fight against unemployment essentially involves labor market policies which take two forms. On the one hand, passive labor market policies consist of maintaining the income of people temporarily or permanently deprived of employment (social treatment of unemployment through the payment of social benefits). On the other hand, active labor market policies aim to help the unemployed find work (economic treatment of unemployment via vocational training schemes, aid for hiring and business creation, measures in favor of young people and people with disabilities, support for the unemployed, creation of subsidized jobs, etc.). The first ones allow the beneficiary to cope financially with a period of unemployment (unemployment compensation) and they support early cessations of activity (measures in favor of early retirement for employees who have had a long career). The second one encourages the beneficiary to return to professional activity.

To a certain extent, these measures have made it possible to reduce unemployment or, at least, to contain it. However, they seem much less efficient on long-term unemployment which, for its part, has continued to grow since the beginning of the 2000s and has remained at relatively high levels over the last 15 years. The unemployment rate of people unemployed for more than 1 year has never fallen below 3% since the mid-2000s and has fluctuated between 3.5% and 4.5% on average for a decade. The long-term unemployed represent a quarter of the total unemployed people and their number has doubled since the end of the 2000s (they were 500,000 in 2008 and nearly 1 million in 2016). This observation led certain professionals of inclusion to question the merits of traditional employment policies and to think about alternative solutions to the classical recipes for labor market policies. This is how the project “Territoire Zéro Chômeur de Longue Durée (TZCLD)” (Zero Long-Term Unemployed Territory (ZLTUT)) was born in the early 2010s. ZLTUT is an active labor market policy in favor of people far from jobs, which provides an undifferentiated response to a heterogeneous public [1].

Resulting from the reflections of the social entrepreneur Patrick Valentin in the mid-1990s, “TZCLD” was taken up and developed by the association “ATD Quart Monde”¹ in 2011. This project was recognized and then institutionalized by the public authorities in 2016 with the creation of the “association TZCLD” and the parliamentary vote on the experimentation law. This experiment, which has now entered its second phase after the first experimental stage which lasted 5 years (2016–2021), aims to fight against long-term unemployment at the territorial level [2]. ZLTUT operates a reversal of the perspective of employment policies’ philosophy since it postulates that it is possible to offer permanent employment with chosen work time to all people permanently deprived of job and to develop useful activities for the territory, without significant additional cost for the community. By offering professional stability and security as well as an improvement in daily life through access to lasting employment, this experiment makes it possible to act on socioeconomic inequalities.

Our research question concerns the effects of a job guarantee on the ability of people far from labor market to take up employment. Our hypothesis is twofold: on the one hand, we seek to show that ZLTUT is an original project to fight long-term unemployment and improve inclusion of people out of work for a long time (2); on the other hand, we wish to show that this experiment maintains the employability of the long-term unemployed and facilitate their integration into the labor market by making effective the right to employment (3). This hypothesis thus indicates that the implementation of this right leads to reduce socioeconomic inequalities. To prove it, we use the method of literature review. This one is based on three categories of documents. Firstly, books written by socio-professionals involved in the field of ZLTUT, which retrace the genesis and implementation of this experiment since its beginning. Secondly, the publication of studies by official statistical organizations that provide quantified data on the effectiveness and evolution of the project for the territories and beneficiaries. And thirdly, academic articles and monographs that describe and evaluate the interest, scope, and impact of the experimentation.

2. An original project to fight long-term unemployment and to improve the inclusion of people out of work for a long time

The originality of ZLTUT lies in the original considerations and observations of the project (Section 2.1) as well as in its philosophy and working (Section 2.2).

2.1 The original considerations and observations of ZLTUT

ZLTUT was born of two observations. On the one hand, France is characterized by a tense job market excluding the most vulnerable people (Section 2.1.1). On the other hand, public spending for employment and labor market is relatively costly and inefficient (Section 2.1.2).

2.1.1 A tense job market excluding the most vulnerable people

The French labor market is characterized by strong inequalities in access to employment which result in the exclusion of the most disadvantaged categories of the population. Thus, young people, women, immigrants, and the least educated are the first affected by unemployment.

The unemployment rate has multiplied by more than two and a half in 20 years (from 4% in 1976 to 10.6% in 1996) and has never been lower than 7% since the beginning of the 2000s (from 8% in 2000 to 10.5% in 2014 and 7.4% at the end of 2023) (Figure 1). Over the period 1975–2023, the unemployment rate of women has always been higher than that of men and of the overall unemployment rate (except in the recent period, since 2016); at the same time, that of young people aged 15 at 24 was on average two to three times higher than the total unemployment rate (from 8.6% in 1975 to 23% in 1984 and even 27.9% in 2012, 17.6% at the end of 2023) (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Evolution of the unemployment rate (%) in France from 1975 to 2023 (women, young people 15–24, total). Source: Author, based on INSEE data series 1975–2023. Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies).

For its part, long-term unemployment (that of people without work for more than 1 year) is relatively high. Certainly, it is on average three to four times lower than the total unemployment rate, but it has very rarely fallen below 2% over the period 2003–2023. It generally oscillates between 2 and 3%; it reached its lowest point in 2008 (1.7%) and its highest point in 2016 (3.1%); and it is 1.8% in 2023 (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Evolution of the long-term unemployment rate (%) in France from 2003 to 2023. Source: Author, based on INSEE data series 2003–2023.

Beyond economic difficulties, deprivation of lasting employment also causes social difficulties for the people concerned, for their families, and more broadly, for the territory in which they reside. Long-term unemployment generates disorder and tension. In addition to the lack of economic resources (income), there is also the lack of social resources (social relationships and social ties). This is why public authorities are trying to act through employment spending to limit this scourge.

2.1.2 Costly and inefficient employment and labor market spending

To provide solutions to the problem of unemployment, public authorities implement employment policies financed by public funds. Employment and labor market spending has never stopped increasing in France since the end 1990s; they are costly and insufficient [3].

For example, public employment spending² (PES) has almost never been less than 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) since the mid-1980s. It varies between 1.9 and 3.2% over the entire period 1985–2019 (1.98% in 1989, 3.18% in 2003, and 2.62% in 2019) and it reached its highest level in 2020 at 4.11% (Figure 3). In the same period, public spending for labor market³ (PSLM) evolved between 1.3 and 2.3% between 1985 and 2008 (2.27% in 1985 and 1.24% in 2008). It remained almost stable from 2008 to 2019 (oscillating between 1.24% and 1.49%) and reached its peak at 2.79% in 2020 (Figure 3).

Figure 3.

Evolution of PES and PSLM (% of GDP) in France from 1985 to 2020/2021. Source: Author, based on OECD data series 1985–2021. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

It is very difficult to know the real cost of long-term unemployment in France because there is no specific statistical category to identify and calculate the amount of employment expenditure devoted to long-term unemployment in the nomenclatures of the main institutions responsible for studies on the labor market (mainly INSEE and DARES⁴). However, we can affirm that long-term unemployment remains important and relatively costly. Even if it has tended to decline since 2016, long-term unemployment is still high and represents a significant cost. According to “ATD Quart Monde” and the Senate, the minimum average annual cost of a long-term unemployed person would indeed be around €15,400. Of the order of 580,000 people in 2022, the number of long-term unemployed therefore leads to public spending for long-term unemployment of nearly €9 billion per year.

Despite the relatively large sums devoted to it, labor market policy expenditure fails to solve the problem of unemployment, especially long-term unemployment. Employment policy is thus relatively costly for results that do not meet the objectives set. This ineffectiveness of spending for employment to fight long-term unemployment calls for a new way of thinking about employment, work, and the labor market. It justifies the use of innovative solutions such as ZLTUT to promote the inclusion of people removed from work for a long time.

2.2 The ZLTUT philosophy and working

ZLTUT is based on several fundamental principles which are founded on deep-seated convictions shared by the actors behind the project (Section 2.2.1). These convictions and principles enable us to understand the specific way in which this experiment works (Section 2.2.2).

2.2.1 The project’s convictions and fundamental principles

ZLTUT is a project relaunched by the French association “ATD Quart Monde” in 2011 and whose approach should be fully sustainable by 2026 (Box 1). It is based on three main ideas, three key principles defining the job guarantee. Firstly, “no one is unemployable.” Secondly, “there is no shortage of work.” And finally, “there is no shortage of money.” The first principle means that everyone is employable, provided that the offered job is suited to the person’s skills and abilities. The second principle suggests that there is no shortage of jobs because many useful activities are not being done; according to this idea, we need to go beyond the criterion of market profitability to be able to create activities and therefore jobs. The last principle states that job creation is no more costly to society than long-term joblessness.

Compliance with these three principles enshrines the idea that employment is a fundamental right. In this sense, ZLTUT is simply implementing Article 5 of the Preamble to the French Constitution of 1946, which recognizes the “right to obtain employment.”⁵ The central objective of this project is to make employment an effective right for all people who are permanently deprived of work in any territory that so wish. The promoters of this experiment indeed believe that it is possible to put an end to long-term joblessness on a territorial scale. They also think that the right to job has social and environmental benefits and that the long-term deprivation of employment on territories cannot respond to the ecological and democratic challenges.

What makes ZLTUT special is that it seeks to create jobs from work that is useful to the community. These useful activities must complement the economy of territory and must not compete with local businesses or replace existing jobs. The jobs to be created cannot be the same from one territory to another, as the specific local features of each experimental territory must be considered. The list of jobs is therefore not a national one, and it is up to the project leaders to work with all the local actors and with the long-term unemployed to define the jobs best suited to the needs of the territory and of the long-term unemployed. In-depth knowledge of the territory and the involvement of local actors enable to identify activities that are unfulfilled but useful to the territory. These additional activities are created with people who are permanently unemployed, taking into account their wishes and skills. They help to broaden the range of services available to the local population and diversify the type of jobs carried out in the territory.

2011:     “ATD Quart Monde” relaunches the project initiated in 1993 by the social entrepreneur Patrick Valentin.; 2014:     Laurent Grandguillaume to set up a group of MPs to evaluate and promote the project.; February 2016:     First law passed unanimously by National Assembly and Senate.; June 2016:     Establishment of the “Fonds d’expérimentation territoriale contre le chômage de longue durée” (Territorial experimentation fund against long-term unemployment), chaired by Louis Gallois.; October 2016:     Creation of the “association TZCLD” (ZLTUT association), chaired by Laurent Grandguillaume.; November 2016:     Approval of the first 10 experimental territories.; January 2017:     Opening of the first “Entreprises à But d’Emploi” (Employment-based enterprises).; November 2020:     Second law passed unanimously by National Assembly and Senate.; 2021–2024:     Approval of at least 50 new territories over time.; 2026:     End of the second experimental phase with the aim of making permanent the approach.

Box 1.

The main dates of “TZCLD” (ZLTUT).

2.2.2 How ZLTUT works in practice

In practice, ZLTUT uses an experimental approach that is applied throughout the three main phases of the project (Box 2), and which must comply with three rules.

The first rule is that the project is developed from and with the long-term unemployed. ZLTUT is a local project based on the voluntary participation of people who are permanently unemployed and of the local actors involved (enterprises, associations, local authorities, etc.). Every actor in the territory is expected to contribute to the project. To achieve this, the “Comité local pour l’emploi”⁶ (Local Employment Committee) brings together all the actors and leads the process at the local level. In addition, the governance of the project and the management of the “Entreprise à but d’emploi”⁷ (Employment-based enterprise) in which the long-term unemployed are recruited must take into consideration the wishes, skills, and abilities of people who are far from the labor market.

The second rule is that territorial cooperation must lead to exhaustivity. Exhaustiveness is based on proactive approaches to identify and reach out to people who, for a variety of reasons, do not have recourse to employment but who aspire to work. This exhaustiveness requires constant monitoring by the local employment committee (LEC) and is only possible if the local actors brought together within the LEC, have the collective will and capacity to mobilize their respective tools to offer decent and accessible employment to any voluntary person who is permanently deprived of it.

The third rule is that the additional jobs created must be necessary for the territory. The additional jobs created must complement existing jobs in the territory and not compete with or replace them. They must also be necessary for the population and be financed in line with the territory’s needs. These jobs are supported by the employment-based enterprise (EBE) based on the identification of useful works in the territory that can subsequently be transformed into concrete jobs.⁸ EBE does not select people who have been out of work for a long time: it hires all long-term unemployed people who have been recognized as such by the LEC, on permanent contracts, on a voluntary basis, and for a monthly salary equivalent to the legal minimum wage. It also has a duty to take account of the skills, abilities, and wishes of these people to develop activities that are useful to the territory and complement the existing offer.

At the national scale, ZLTUT is an experimental project which is structured in three steps. The first one has been implemented between 2016 and 2021. Following the adoption of the first experimentation law in 2016, first 10 experimental territories from different French departments were authorized during this period.^9 The second one began in 2021 and will continue until 2026. The aim of this stage is to reach at least 60 experimental territories by the end of the 5-year period.^10 The project is extended to 50 new territories and the expansion of the experimental panel should lead to the results and lessons of the first stage can be learned for the third stage. The last one has no date and no specific period. This stage is designed to ensure the long-term future of the approach. Il consists of considering the experience of the territories engaged in the project in order to make effective the right to employment for all on each candidate territory.

Box 2.

The three steps of ZLTUT.

For its part, the experimental approach involves observing and evaluating the impact of the experiment on the local territory, as well as the human, social, and economic benefits obtained.¹¹ This approach has two main objectives. On the one hand, it should demonstrate that it is possible, in each territory, to offer a job to any long-term unemployed person living in this territory and who wishes to work, at no significant additional cost to the community. On the other hand, it should make it possible to verify the long-term economic viability of the companies involved in the project and to evaluate the experiment to determine whether it can be extended and under what conditions.

As we have seen, ZLTUT is an original project based on three key principles defining the job guarantee. This job guarantee is in line with the “right to employment,” whose aim is to maintain the employability of the long-term unemployed and facilitate their integration into the labor market.

3. An effective right to employment maintaining the employability of the long-term unemployed and facilitating their integration into the labor market

According to ZLTUT’s promoters, the employability of the long-term unemployed and their integration into the labor market is only possible if the right to employment is made effective (Section 3.1). The results of the first evaluations seem to prove this idea: ZLTUT does indeed have positive effects on reducing social inequalities (Section 3.2).

3.1 Making effective the right to employment

Founded on an employment guarantee to ensure the social inclusion of people who have been excluded from the workforce for a long time (Section 3.1.1), the “right to employment” is a reversal of the logic of activation by offering decent jobs without forcing people to return to work (Section 3.1.2).

3.1.1 An employment guarantee to ensure the social inclusion of people who have been excluded from the workforce for a long time

The job guarantee results in an effective right to employment, which leads to offering different jobs. It refers more especially to job creation programs that meet environmental and social needs [4]. People who are permanently unemployed can work in various sectors of economic activity, provided that these jobs are additional activities. These activities can be production activities (organic market gardening, solidarity garages, manufacture of washable nappies, sale of wood, etc.) or service activities, whether they be services to businesses, shopkeepers, and farmers (itinerant groceries, maintenance, cleaning, company concierge services, agricultural work, maintenance, administrative assistance, etc.) or services to associations (administrative support, solidarity groceries, animation, etc.) and local authorities (maintenance of green spaces, canteen and after-school care, mediation, etc.). In particular, the EBE aims to develop activities linked to the ecological transition (eco-mobility, sale of market garden produce in a short circuit, resource centers, recycling centers, energy diagnostics, etc.) as well as local concierge services (homework help, transport of people, sewing, delivery of small packages, support for the elderly, disabled or isolated, etc.). Beyond EBE, the idea is to make work sustainable and accessible for everyone and everywhere [5].

Moreover, this job guarantee provided through the fact of hiring people far from the labor market has positive effects, beyond simply reducing unemployment. It also helps to stimulate employment by creating jobs within the EBE (through support functions as transport, childcare, administration, training…). This double positive consequence (decrease in unemployment and increase in employment) nevertheless becomes effective if original solutions to manage the structure and think to optimize its organization has been considered since the start of the experiment. Taking into account these two constraints is essential and imperative to succeed in removing the obstacles to hiring employees (mobility, training, etc.) and secure their return to work. This employment security is not only a manner to ensure social inclusion of people who have been excluded from the workforce for a long time; it also is a new way to think about “activation” and recognize that return to work should not lay in forcing them to accept any job but must correspond to the proposal of decent work.

3.1.2 Offering decent jobs without forcing people to return to work: A reversal of the logic of activation

The specificity of ZLTUT is that the financing of the experiment is based on the logic of activation. This project is financed by activating the passive costs associated with long-term joblessness. The aim of this experimentation is to use public budgets to subsidize jobs related to ZLTUT rather than to pay for unemployment benefits. The main and original idea is to redirect the costs of social assistance and unemployment insurance toward financing the jobs that are lacking in the concerned territory. This principle is in line with the logic of activation but is also a reversal of this logic. It is a kind of activation in the sense of tightening the relationship between social system and labor market. Activation can indeed be defined as the introduction of “an explicit link (often, regulatory) between social protection and employment and labor market policies” [6].

At the same time, it is a new approach to activation because the reinforcement of the link between the social system and labor market is no longer understood as a mean to force people without jobs to return to work but as an opportunity to offer them decent jobs. Long-term unemployed have no duty to work to get their welfare benefits. It is not up for the individual to adapt to the expectations of the job market, but for jobs to adapt to the characteristics of the person. The focus is not on labor supply but on labor demand and the right to employment replaces the duty to work. In a way, this mindset reflects the aspirations of the promoters of transitional labor markets [7] whose aim is not equipping people for the market but equipping the market for people [8]. In addition, according to the defenders of ZLTUT, labor market must provide a decent job (i.e., a lasting and quality job) which must correspond to the desires and capacities of the permanently unemployed people.

Activation in this experiment is thus thought and designed with the willingness to implement concretely the right to employment. Another special feature of ZLTUT is in the logic of financing this “right to employment.” This one is made of two principal components. On the one hand, the first source comes from the reallocation of costs and loss of earnings due to long-term unemployment. On the other hand, the second source is based on the revenues generated by the enterprise through the invoicing of its products or services. The second component of the experimentation’s financing is truly a special feature of the project, insofar as the funding does not come entirely from public funds but is also based on the resources generated by the activity of the EBE. For its part, the first financing component shows that the cost of joblessness averages 43 billion € a year, due to the amount of social expenditure (active solidarity income,¹² disabled adult allowance, housing benefit …) and employment expenditure (specific solidarity allowance,¹³ social support …), but also due to the loss of revenue (in taxes and social security contributions) and induced costs (expenses linked to the social consequences of unemployment in the fields of housing, health, security, child protection, etc.) [9].

3.2 Initial evaluations indicate ZLTUT’s positive impact on reducing social inequalities

The evaluations about the first stage of experimentation indicate that ZLTUT had positive effects as well in terms of employment (Section 3.2.1) as in the reduction of socioeconomic inequalities (Section 3.2.2).

3.2.1 The evaluations of the first stage of experimentation show positive effects of the experiment in terms of employment

The first evaluations of ZLTUT were carried out in 2019, approximately 3 years after the implementation of the first experimental phase (2016–2021). The evaluations made in 2019 therefore constitute, in a way, mid-term reviews of the project over the 5 years of this first stage of the project. The first findings are, overall, positive [3]. The main remarks that emerge from the various studies carried out indicate several important facts, relatively similar whatever the territory concerned.

In the field of employment, by offering a permanent contract to people without work for more than a year, ZLTUT gives economic security and stability to its beneficiaries without however falling within the “career path” logic that characterizes most of the active labor market policies whose aim is a return of the unemployed people to unsubsidized job in the ordinary labor market [1].¹⁴ A large majority of employees recruited in EBE indeed declare that they find meaning in their work and that they highlight an improvement in their professional situation.¹⁵ ZLTUT provides them with a certain socio-professional security to the extent that their chance of returning to lasting employment is three times greater than if they had not been beneficiaries integrated into the project [10]. Without the existence of this project, the labor market situation of beneficiaries recruited in 2019 would have been worse than that of EBE’s employees present at the end of 2018 [11]. The participation of beneficiaries in the experiment thus enabled them to be part of a dynamic of real future prospects, particularly on a professional level¹⁶ [12].

These overall results at the national level for the 10 territories of the first phase of experimentation are confirmed at the local scale. For the four specific studies that we have on the territories of Lille Métropole¹⁷ [13], Jouques¹⁸ [14], Prémery¹⁹ [15], and Colombelles²⁰ [16], we can notice the same observations almost everywhere. Whether in urban or rural territories, we can see that the experimentation contributes to relative economic stabilization, and it allows employees to increase their skills as well as their engagement in new professional projects [14]. In addition to the professional stability it offers, the permanent contract signed with the EBE constitutes an economic resource that allows the improvement of daily life through access to consumption [13]. This situation can in part explain the reason why employees recruited in the EBE feel professional fulfillment [16].

3.2.2 … as well as in fighting against socioeconomic inequalities

In addition to stimulating job creation and allowing people far from employment to reenter the labor market, ZLTUT also contributes to reduce socioeconomic inequalities. Whatever the territory, we can remark that the experimentation has positive effects on employees in terms of breaking isolation and resuming a rhythm of life [14]. Employees recruited into EBE get an improvement in quality of life compared to previous stages of their career [16]. Participation in the experiment has thus a positive impact on the living conditions of EBE’s employees and increases their ability to project oneself and renew social ties [10]. According to them, hiring in EBE has resulted in a clear improvement in their living conditions which materializes, at the social level, through a remobilization of their ability to create social connections, both at work and outside.

Another positive aspect of the consequences of being part of this experiment is that the beneficiaries invest more of themselves into social life. For example, the permanent contract offered by the EBE can be seen as a social resource that leads, among other things, to a more important political and trade union commitment [13]. Moreover, most of the beneficiaries regain self-confidence and estimate the experience as an ambitious and positive project [15]. They also consider that the activities developed by the project respond to the satisfaction of existing needs on the territory [12].

4. Conclusion and discussion

The main findings and their relation to the research question. To sum up the main positive effects of ZLTUT, we can notice that participation in the experiment helps improve the quality of life and material conditions of beneficiaries. It allows them to secure their socioeconomic situation as well as their professional situation; employment security combines with financial security. In addition to allowing the development of new professional skills, guaranteeing certain stability in the professional trajectory, and offering prospects for career development, ZLTUT also contributes to rebuilding social bonds and breaking isolation and loneliness. The project promotes social inclusion through an increase in social and family relationships but also by generating greater interest in union and political engagement. In other words, the implementation of a job guarantee in the ZLTUT project contributes to reduce socioeconomic inequalities by making effective the right to employment. This one indeed increases the employability of people far from labor market and improves the social inclusion of those out of work for a long time.

These good results should not make forget that ZLTUT is a project that encounters limits, and which can also have negative effects. For example, although the permanent contract guarantees the professional security of the beneficiaries, their longer-term professional integration remains difficult to assess and, moreover, the employees recruited in the EBEs mainly remain in the structures and do not always occupy jobs in line with their qualifications²¹ [12]. Furthermore, EBE tends to recruit more disadvantaged employees (women, young people, less qualified), beneficiaries who are increasingly distant from the labor market [11] whose great diversity of profiles and professional paths can explain very varied prospects for exits outside EBE depending on the case [16]. Finally, the experiment requires significant financial support [1] and its effects on the socioeconomic situation of the beneficiaries take a long time to occur [11].

The end of the first stage of the experiment demonstrated the need to implement the project and measure the financing requirements for a territory with zero long-term unemployment. The good results indeed convinced the public authorities to continue the project and begin the second phase of experimentation. The results of the studies about the first step of the ZLTUT experiment have nevertheless to be confirmed by the evaluations which will be led during the second stage of this experiment. For the moment, no study has been carried out about this second phase and we then cannot indicate if these positive effects will continue in the new configuration of the experiment with 50 new territories.

But a scientific committee in charge of evaluating the extension of the experimentation was established in 2020 for this purpose. It must submit a report no later than 2025 focusing more specifically on the cost of the experiment for public finances, on the positive externalities observed, and on the results compared to those of the sector of insertion through economic activity (IEA). Concerning this last point, the first evaluations show that the operationalization of the ZLTUT experiment produces forms of convergence of this project with the structures of the IEA [17]. One thing we can say is that, despite the limits that ZLTUT encounters, the experiment has been very successful, so much so that, beyond the 60 territories already authorized, many emerging projects are mobilizing to enter the experiment.²²

The limitations of the study. Despite its contributions, our study suffers from a major flaw. It is in fact solely based on a review of the literature. It is therefore dependent on the observations produced by other researchers and actors committed on the ground. To confirm the results of studies already carried out, it seems important to continue our work by developing our own qualitative survey. This should seek to highlight the direct role of the job guarantee in reducing social inequalities in each territory concerned by the ZLTUT project. To do this, one of the possible methodological options could be to investigate among the beneficiaries of the experiment combining both field observations and semi-structured interviews, supplemented, if necessary, by a questionnaire.