The recruiting machine continues to turn. For the ninth quarter in a row, salaried employment continued to rise during the first three months of 2023. The French economy, which grew only weakly (+0.2%) over this period, despite everything created 92,400 jobs (+ 0.3%), against 55,400 the previous quarter, according to figures published Thursday, June 8 by Insee and Dares.
Despite the succession of crises – health, energy, war in Ukraine, inflation – companies have hired massively in France. Since the end of 2019, the French economy has created 1.3 million jobs in total, i.e. a 4.9% increase in the workforce. The success of work-study plays an important role, since it represents a third of these creations. On the other hand, the interim is down sharply.
In the private sector alone, the dynamic is even more remarkable: up 0.4% in the first quarter, i.e. 86,800 jobs created, the total workforce is 6.1% above the 2019 level. civil service, the increase reached 0.1% and 1.1% respectively.
Unemployment at 7.1% in May
Even during the last boom period – between spring 2015 and spring 2018 – the pace of job creation was much lower, with a total of 725,000 new jobs.
At the same time, unemployment reached 7.1% of the active population in May, the lowest since 1982. A trend which allows the executive to display its objective of achieving full employment – which corresponds to a rate unemployment of around 5% of the working population – by 2027.
Everything, however, may not go as planned. The business climate “starts to sting”, observes Vladimir Passeron, head of the employment and earned income department at INSEE. Its indicator reached its lowest level since April 2021 in April. As for the one that reflects recruitment intentions, it has fallen sharply since the end of 2022. “When we talk to business leaders, they show a certain caution about their spending”confirms Denis Ferrand, Managing Director at Rexecode, for whom “we have reached a high point on the dynamic”. Some sectors, such as trade, traditionally a big provider of jobs, are also giving worrying signals between bankruptcy filings, store closures and workforce reductions.
Fall in labor productivity
“Companies will eventually have to restore productivity”explains economist Eric Heyer, especially as growth slows down”. Because the dynamics of the labor market over the recent period have resulted in a sharp drop in labor productivity. If the workforce had increased over the 2019-2022 period at the same rate as the added value produced, there would now be one million fewer salaried jobs.
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