The French economy continues to generate jobs. In its flash estimate, published Friday August 5, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) counts 102,000 net job creations in the private sector, in the second quarter of 2022, which represents an increase of 0.5 % compared to the first quarter. This is the sixth quarterly increase in a row.
Despite the uncertainties weighing on the economy, these figures therefore confirm the good health of employment, already observed previously, combined with a moderate unemployment rate (7.3% in the first quarter, according to figures from the institute) . While 2021 had already largely offset the effects of the Covid-19 crisis (+4.3% over the year as a whole, i.e. 838,700 more jobs), the continued momentum is reflected by a number of jobs much higher than before the crisis: in mid-2022, private salaried employment exceeded its level at the end of 2019 by 3.8% (+ 754,200 jobs).
In detail, only temporary work experienced a decline between the end of March and the end of June (− 2.1%), after a prosperous 2021. Excluding temporary work, the commercial tertiary sector appears to be the big winner and almost alone explains the good trend in the labor market: growth of 0.8% in the second quarter, after 0.6% in the first (i.e. an increase of 97,300 jobs after 77,300 in the first quarter). The tertiary sector is even 4.5% above its pre-crisis level. For their part, industry, agriculture and even construction are stabilizing.
Recruitment difficulties
These good figures, which will be specified in a detailed report on September 8, can partly be explained by a recent methodological change: since the first quarter of 2022, cyclical changes in salaried employment take into account those of work-study trainees (apprentices and holders of professionalization contracts). Having revised its figures for 2021 taking into account the creation of jobs linked to work-study programs, INSEE indicated, in June, that the dynamism of these contracts reserved for young people accounted for a third of the growth in employment in all of 2021.
Insee’s flash estimate does not provide any additional information on the type of employment contract and the working time of the employees occupying these new jobs, nor does it allow us to return to the structural problems that employers say they are encountering. , starting with the recruitment difficulties and the drop in productivity since 2020.
You have 11.92% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.