Outmoded ideas are going to come into fashion again. The debate over work sharing will soon hum in political life. That's the reflex of French society when unemployment rises. And unemployment is not only going to rise, but to jump. After increasing by 50,000 people a month at the end of 2008, the number of job-seekers increased by 90,000 in January and is likely to expand still more quickly this spring. In fact, companies cut into investment and advertising expenses before resolving to reduce their manpower. The brutal drop in their turnover since the fall is barely beginning to show through in the unemployment figures. In view of the present climate, it's not impossible that the threshold of 3 million unemployed will burst into pieces before the end of the year: A level not seen since 1998, precisely the time when the Jospin government was busying itself with the work-sharing issue by promoting the 35-hour law.

    So, must we share work? Yes, obviously. The French, moreover, are doing so more and more. For example, over 4 million employees practice one obvious form of sharing, versus barely 1.5 million twenty-five years ago. They perform part-time work, facilitated and then encouraged by a whole series of measures taken during the 1990s. Of course, we must go beyond that - but not in any which way.

    The Socialists could be tempted to propose a 30-hour workweek in order to continue down the triumphal path opened by the 35-hour workweek. As they have not yet launched that idea, it's probable that they have their doubts. So much the better! Without saying, as did the president of the Republic, that "work-sharing was a historic economic error," there's no denying that the 35-hour workweek was not an effective weapon against unemployment. Even assuming that the 10 percent reduction in work time allowed the creation of 300,000 new jobs (the figure generally accepted, but undoubtedly overestimated), it would thus have increased the number of salaried jobs by 1.4 percent only. And the illusion of "working less to earn the same amount" cost workers - deprived of pay increases for years - dearly.

    At the Elysée, the slogan "work more to earn more" has been soft-pedaled and that's also just as well. Although the boom in overtime may be of some interest in fair weather, the opposite is true in a storm. Faced with adversity, employers are tempted to compress their workforce by the maximum, even though it means making their remaining employees work more should they have new orders. So our political leaders have turned to another formula: "work less to earn a little less." For example, work three times less to earn two times less and so share the remaining job. That's partial unemployment. In small doses, it's a precious tool. In big doses, it's unfair because it organizes a massive transfer of public resources to workers who are lucky enough to keep their jobs in spite of everything.

    The solution is elsewhere. Not at the country level, but at the company level. When activity wanes, it's the company, not the Elysée or Gosplan, that should adjust resources. In the United Kingdom, the "Financial Times" is asking its journalists whether they wouldn't perchance like to take several months of unpaid leave or work three days a week only. In Japan, Renault's partner, Nissan, has begun talks with its unions to reduce the workweek to four days - without asking for the advice of present Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry, who was the instigator of the 35-hour workweek! Obviously, the prospect is rarely heartening. The workers involved will undergo a reduction in income, "work less to earn less." All the same, it is preferable to the prospect of seeing some workers earn as much as they did before and others no longer earn anything at all. When everything was not going so badly, the experts "on the left" wanted to share work to reduce unemployment and those "on the right" wanted to make the rules more flexible. Today, when everything is going so badly, this debate is outmoded. If companies succeed in flexibly sharing work, they will limit the social damage, pending the return of fair weather days when we can work more to earn more.

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    Translation: Truthout French language editor Leslie Thatcher.