Lhe current debates illustrate this: immigration tends to be approached exclusively through a social and political prism, and far too little through an economic prism. Parasited by security and identity debates, the discussions which surrounded the examination and then the vote of the bill in Parliament did not give due attention to a central question: how to train and attract the talents who will occupy the jobs that will create the economy of tomorrow?
We find ourselves facing a labor shortage, against a backdrop of demographic slowdown, with a scarcity of labor resources and a shortage of skills from which businesses are already suffering today. A shortage which is observed at all levels: in large groups, but more widely across the entire economic fabric.
A recent study of the Bpifrance Lab on the shortage of talent in industrial SMEs and ETIs (mid-sized companies) thus laid the foundations for a calm debate on economic immigration, in a global and quantified manner, by showing the colossal needs of jobs to be filled (400,000 additional jobs by 2035 in industry).
These jobs that don’t exist yet
Calling on more foreign labor has become a vital necessity. We can regret that the discussion on the famous “jobs in shortage” has remained too focused on the jobs – often low-skilled – to be filled today. But the shortage professions of tomorrow, which we must quickly worry about, are also all these highly qualified jobs which do not yet exist! Those induced by technological revolutions, by climate change, and those which will serve to make the link between all these transitions, through their capacity to synthesize and put new issues into perspective.
We have already entered into a global competition to attract this talent. However, it is clear that our current system does not achieve this sufficiently.
Two eloquent indicators to realize this: according to the Economic Analysis Council, only 10% of immigration in France is linked to skills – a figure much lower than that of our European neighbors. And on theglobal talent competitiveness index published by InseadFrance appears at 19e rank, far behind Germany. There is therefore a fundamental subject of attractiveness!
Competition is particularly marked in tech. Digital transformation and automation are changing the nature of work, increasing demand for IT, data analytics or artificial intelligence skills. There is a gap between the skills taught and those demanded by the job market.
You have 30% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.