“Before, until around 2015, when we advertised a job offer, we received around a hundred applications, around twenty of which came from graduates, and at the end we were able to sign around six contracts. Today, we don’t even have a return”says Brice Alzon, president of the House of Personal Services (MDSAP) and of Coviva, a brand which has seventeen agencies and around 850 workers – the profession is massively feminized.
In the vast sector of personal services (from domestic workers to nannies, including carers and school support), the question of the use of foreign labor “isn’t even a subject” The difficulty in recruiting is so great, insists Mr. Alzon.
The more the agency is established in a region rich in jobs, the more it must rely on applications from foreign people to operate: in Argenteuil (Val-d’Oise), of the thirty-six employees in this agency, one third has a residence permit, while in Mulhouse, where the job market is less tight, the ratio is 20%, explains Mr. Alzon. The situation at Coviva illustrates what is happening nationally: 25% of workers in the sector are immigrants.
Chopped timetables
And this proportion is set to increase: between retirements and the aging of the population, around 800,000 positions will need to be filled by 2030, reports Catherine Lopez, general director of the Federation of Personal Services Companies. : “Otherwise we will no longer be able to support elderly people in their homes. »
This is already very often the case, as demonstrated by Arnold Fauquette, founder of Vivat, a social utility company based in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais, which employs around two hundred employees, 95% of whom are women. “Today, we are only able to satisfy 64% of demand”, he explains. In other words, one in three families must manage alone to find their home help, with no guarantee of finding them, even if it means having an undocumented person work.
The established agency networks say they do not employ undocumented immigrants, under penalty of losing their approval. “Approximately 20% to 25% of our nine hundred employees have residence permitsexplains Frédéric Neymon, administrator of the Federation of Personal and Local Services (Fedesap) and director of the Age et Perspectives network. When these titles expire, we have every difficulty getting them renewed on time. » But it’s impossible to do without these people. “ We would need 30% more workers to meet demand”specifies Mr. Neymon.
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