The second quarter saw the destruction of 119,400 jobs in the private sector. In the first quarter, 497,500 had been destroyed under the effect of confinement. This slight improvement is linked to a rebound in temporary work, with 108,500 jobs created in this sector, according to an estimate by INSEE published on Friday.
>> READ ALSO - Coronavirus: our answers to your questions about work
A decline in salaried employment of 2.5% over one year
Over one year, salaried employment fell by 2.5%, or -480,000 jobs, a comparable level at the end of June 2017, recalls INSEE. In market services (industry, construction, commercial services), which are the driving force behind employment in France, salaried employment fell by 0.6% in the second quarter, after -2.8% in the first, i.e. - 3.4% over the semester. This is the largest drop over a half-year recorded since the start of this series by INSEE, carried out from 1970. The Institute points out that at the heart of the 2008/2009 crisis, between September 2008 and March 2009, market services (industry, construction, commercial services) fell by 1.7%.
>> READ ALSO - Search for a first job: after the coronavirus worries young people
Return to interim employment since May
After an "unprecedented" fall in the first quarter (-40.4%), temporary work rebounded: + 23.1%, or 108,500 creations. Interim started to recover in May, before increasing "markedly" in June. "In mid-2020, however, it remains 27.1% (or -214,800 jobs) below its level a year earlier," said INSEE. Excluding temporary work, salaried employment continued to decline, falling by 1, 2% (-227,900 jobs).
In construction, private salaried employment (excluding temporary work) increased by 0.3%, after a drop of 0.4% in the first. Industrial employment, also excluding temporary work, fell again, by 0.8% (-24,300 jobs) compared to the previous quarter, by -1.1% over one year.