The year 2021, a good year for private employment in France

Europe 1 with AFP 7:42 p.m., February 04, 2022

The year 2021 will have been a very good year for job creation: with nearly 650,000 net job creations, the level of employment in the private sector exceeds its pre-crisis level by nearly 300,000 jobs, according to the provisional estimate. published Friday by INSEE.

The private sector recorded precisely 648,200 net job creations over one year at the end of 2021 (+3.3%), according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies.

An "exceptional recovery"

In total, at the end of 2021, private salaried employment exceeded its pre-crisis level by 1.5% (i.e. +297,300 jobs) at the end of 2019. Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne immediately hailed an "exceptional recovery" on Twitter. .

It is "a little higher" than what had been anticipated, explains to AFP Sylvain Larrieu, head of the Synthesis and conjuncture of the labor market division of INSEE.

He notes that the creation of some 650,000 jobs over one year is "unprecedented" in number, even if in percentage, with 3.3%, the progression was "even more dynamic in 2000" with 3.9%.

But, adds the INSEE expert, the situation is "quite different because the 3.3% increase represents the rebound compared to 2020, which was a year of crisis, whereas in 2000", this followed a year of "very strong growth".

In 2020, private salaried employment had lost some 350,000 jobs (-1.8%), recalls Mr. Larrieu, based on revised figures.

"We are pleasantly surprised by the dynamism of employment", also welcomes Mathieu Plane, economist at the OFCE, noting that "this traces what we see on the side of unemployment with a downward trend and the tensions on recruitment".

For the last quarter of 2021 alone, employment in the private sector increased by 0.5% (+106,700), as in the previous quarter.

It is "strongly driven by temporary employment", which records "a real jump of 9.1%" (+71,100 jobs), underlines Mr. Larrieu.

This represents “two-thirds of the total increase” over the quarter.

At the end of 2021, temporary employment was thus 8.2% above its pre-crisis level (+64,500 jobs).

For the Insee expert, this boom may be linked to "very situational" factors, for example people absent from their jobs for "sick leave, or in isolation", these people still being counted but having -the need to recruit "short contracts to replace them".

"Finding Our Little Ones"

Excluding temporary work, private salaried employment exceeded its pre-crisis level in all sectors except industry, where it remained -1.2% lower than at the end of 2019 (-38,200 jobs).

In the commercial tertiary sector excluding temporary work, a sector very marked by health restriction measures, it exceeded its level at the end of 2019 by 1.3% (i.e. +154,300 jobs).

In construction, private salaried employment is stabilizing (0%), but remains well above its pre-crisis level: +4.5% (+65,000).

Finally, in the non-market tertiary sector, it fell slightly in the 4th quarter (-0.2%), exceeding its end-2019 level by 2% (+49,900).

For the rest, a slowdown is "probable", according to Mr. Larrieu.

Mathieu Plane stresses that having a level of private salaried employment "300,000 above its pre-crisis level is a very good performance", but notes that "it questions the employment content".

In construction, the "most striking" example, the level of employment has thus increased by 4.5% and the added value by only 1.4%, which reflects "productivity losses", he explains. .

"It is difficult to find our little ones. There is a form of disconnection in certain sectors between the level of added value and employment", insists the economist.

He mentions several possible explanations: fairly generous aid schemes in certain sectors that have favored hiring, the fact that health constraints are disorganizing companies and mean that there is "need more people to do the same thing", or that tensions in the labor market mean that companies are keeping jobs "as a precaution".

And to emphasize that "the question for the future is: will companies seek to recover this loss of productivity?".