49

In French jobcentres, Pôle Emploi, placement activity is based on written reports of their job search efforts. Assessing the position of jobseekers on the labor market, these texts are engraved by counsellors at the end of monthly interviews. These documents also transmit a set of evaluation criteria and judgments subsequently used to value certain issues in selection tests. These practices are increasingly rationalized, which gives a central role to devices enabling to put in circulation the knowledge gathered about the unemployed. This article sheds lights upon how the writings used and written by the jobcentres’ counselors provide a link between the administrative processing of files and the hiring opportunities on the labor market.