Employment in France: more than 3 million jobs available in 2023

27 April 2023 Business

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Pôle emploi, the French public authority in charge of employment, has just published the results of its annual study on the needs in workforce in 2023 carried out with thousands of businesses in late 2022. The study says that more than three million projects of recruitment are planned this year in fields as diverse as hotels and catering, agriculture, health, service to individuals, but also cultural animation or research and development in computer science.

After a year 2022 that registered record figures in employment due to the post-covid pickup, assessments for the year 2023 show stability with more than 3 companies out of ten planning to recruit in several lines of business all over the territory.

An annual study to plan ahead

Every year, Pôle Emploi sends a study to employers to understand their needs in recruitment by line of business and recruitment pools. According to Pôle Emploi, out of 2.4 million institutions included in the scope of the study, about 424,000 answers were collected and used in France for the 2023 study.
And Pôle Emploi continues by saying that this study is “a critical piece of knowledge of the labour market” to help:

Anticipate recruitment obstacles;
Improve the guidance of job seekers to trainings or occupation in line with the needs of the labour market;
Inform job seekers about the changes of the labour market and growth occupation.

Strong intentions to employ in small companies

Pôle Emploi also declared that in trend terms, employment intentions in 2023 show a recruitment quantity at the same level as the year before, i.e. a precise figure of 3,039,000 recruitment projects (-0.2% compared to 2022), including 72% for sustainable jobs (long term contracts and six+ months contracts), i.e. +1 point compared with 2022.
Most of these recruitment intentions come from very small companies and small companies. In detail, if more than three institutions out of ten plan to recruit (31% vs 32.8% in 2022), seven recruitment projects out of ten are for institutions under 50 employees.

Discrepancies in recruitment

The Pôle Emploi study shows discrepancies in recruitment in lines of business. For example, the general sector of services alone (services to companies and individuals) attracts 62% of recruitment projects (+1.5% compared with 2022). It should be noted that an amplification of recruitment projects in business and automobile reparation (+10%) and hotel and catering (8.3%). However, there is a decrease of projects in public administration and education, in retail and in occupations using rubber and plastics.

Two rankings to analyse the situation

Pôle Emploi has revealed two situations showing the complexity of employment in France, creating a Top 10 of employing jobs and a Top 10 of occupation under stress.

Top 10 most recruiting sectors in 2023

Waiters in cafes and restaurants;
Winegrower, employed arborists, pickers;
Kitchen porters, apprentices, flexible employees;
Office cleaners;
Employed farmer, farm worker;
Home helpers and household helpers;
Caregivers (medical-psychological, childcare, medical assistants);
Professionals in socio-cultural activities (entertainers and directors);
Unskilled packaging and handling workers;
Cooks.

Other profiles are also in demand, such as artists, self-service employees, nurses (nursing and childcare managers), office secretaries, lorry drivers, engineers and IT R&D managers, security and surveillance agents, private investigators, clothing, accessories, luxury goods and sports salespeople!

The Top 10 jobs with the highest difficulty rate

Roofers, qualified roofers/ziners;
Pharmacists;
Home helpers and household helpers;
Boilermakers, sheet metal workers, plotters, locksmiths, metalworkers, qualified blacksmiths;
Car body repairers;
Medical Technicians and Preparers;
Plumbers, heating engineers;
Medical equipment specialists;
Road transport drivers;
Skilled workers (metal sector).

Recruitment difficulties in relation with various factors

Why are these jobs not being filled? To answer this question, Pôle Emploi estimates that the difficulty rate has risen sharply since 2018 for certain occupations: nurses, nursing managers and nursery nurses (+41 pts), self-service employees (+32 pts) and hospital service agents (+30 pts).

According to the recruiters interviewed during the survey, the reasons for the difficulties are based on various criteria:

an insufficient number of applications(85%);
unsuitable profiles (79%);
working conditions (37%);
lack of image of the occupation (23%);
internal recruitment procedures (16%);
difficulties in accessing the workplace (16%).

Available jobs on France Alumni

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