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In France, since 1998, between 25% and a third of registered unemployed people work (ie. having a reduced activity) while being on the job search. We estimate the impact of this reduced activity on the return to employment and its quality. This study has been done using orginal data sets resulting of matched administrative data on unemployment registrations and employment data. Dynamic matching technics implemented in this article, allow to isolate a positive effect of reduced activity on the rate of employment return at 12 months (about 10 points) whatever the timing of entry in the reduced activity. Quality of employment, measured by wages and number of hours worked, is not significantly better after reduced activity. Classification JEL : J64, J68