At the presentation of the latest CEROM (Comptes économiques rapides pour l’Outre-mer - Rapid Economic Accounts for Overseas France - produced by INSEE, AFD and IEDOM - Editor’s note), a slowdown in economic growth was noted for La Reunion Island. GDP for 2023 stood at 23.2 billion euros, up 1.7% in constant euros. This relative stagnation has repercussions on employment.
In 2023, salaried job creation in La Réunion continued to slow for the second year running. Only 3,700 jobs will have been created, compared with 5,800 in 2022 and 14,000 in 2021.
This slowdown is mainly due to a decline in the private sector, where employment grew by just 1.3% (or 2,600 new jobs) compared with 3.0% in 2022 (5,700 jobs). Construction and the accommodation and catering sector are particularly hard hit. In addition, temporary employment is down by 10.3%, a revealing indicator of this trend.
However, some sectors are holding up better, notably business services, trade and household services. In non-market services, particularly the public sector, employment also increased (+1.2%). Finally, although business start-ups will continue to grow in 2023 (+2% on 2022), this is well below the average annual growth rate of the last five years (+10.3%).

Over 40 years to return to full employment at this rate

La Réunion Island’s economy is currently creating 1,000 jobs per quarter in all sectors. Meanwhile, over 170,000 workers are registered as jobseekers with France Travail. At this rate, and without any additional jobseekers, it would take more than 40 years to reduce unemployment in La Réunion. This is a clear indication of the impasse in which our economy finds itself.
To get out of this situation, the Reunionese Communist Party (PCR) is proposing a complete overhaul, so that all the forces putting forward proposals can discuss a project in which one of the priorities will be to return La Réunion to full employment. This was the situation on La Reunion Island before it integrated France and Europe, when the majority of the population worked in agriculture and industry.
The Plateforme réunionnaise, including the PCR, proposes that the Conférence territoriale de l’action publique (Territorial Conference on Public Action), enlarged to include trade unions, associations and political parties, should be the forum for drawing up this project.

What job opportunities are there in La Réunion Island under the globalization?

It will then be up to the members of the enlarged Territorial Conference to identify the economic sectors that could be sources of employment for La Réunion, taking into account its integration into a globalized economy. Given that salaries on La Réunion are the highest in Africa, a strategy of excellence to create high value-added products and services is a means of guaranteeing the maintenance of wage levels and social gains.
The creation of two major public-interest services in the environment and personal assistance is a PCR proposal. Its aim is to meet the needs created by greater awareness of the need to preserve the environment, and by an ageing population. Tens of thousands of people on our island are volunteer caregivers. The job potential is already there. All that remains is to find the funding.
This will require a major rethink and a change in relations with the State. It’s up to the State to provide financial and institutional support for the proposals put forward by La Reunion, united in a development project in which employment for Reunionese in La Reunion can only be one of the pillars.

M.M.