Margaux Fodéré // Photo credit: Philippe LOPEZ / AFP 1:42 p.m., March 11, 2024

Unemployment among employers is exploding in France.

This is what a study by the Altares group with the GSC association reveals.

In 2023, more than 50,000 business leaders will lose their jobs as a direct result of the bankruptcy of their company.

Never before have so many bosses been affected by unemployment since the financial crisis of 2016. 

No leader seems to be able to escape it.

More than 50,000 business leaders lost their jobs in 2023, according to a study by the Altares group with the GSC association.

All sectors are concerned, all profiles.

Even experienced entrepreneurs, those who had been running a business for an average of seven years. 

“We find ourselves in an unprecedented situation”

The cause is inflation necessarily, but not only: “We are in a crisis, in a crisis, itself in a crisis,” explains Anthony Streicher, president of the GSC association.

"We had the Covid crisis, inflation effects too, the war in Ukraine, the issues of 'Covid debt'. At a given moment, it's good to say the exemptions, the delays, but afterwards, we have to pay. All of this, put together, we find ourselves in an unprecedented situation.” 

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Business failures have never been so numerous in 12 years

All business leaders are affected, but some are even more affected than others.

The bosses who lost their jobs the most last year were seniors.

In almost all cases, these are managers of very small structures, with fewer than five employees.

And without much surprise, it is in the catering and construction sectors that the phenomenon has been strongest. 

Nearly 800 real estate agency managers found themselves unemployed in 2023. And 2024 is expected to remain a difficult year for this sector.