France: private payroll employment rebounded by 1.8% in the third quarter of 2020

According to the report from the INSEE, between the end of June and the end of September 2020, private payroll employment increased by 1.8%, or 344,400 net job creations; it rebounded after 491,600 net job losses in the first quarter and 158,400 net job losses in the second quarter. Private payroll employment remains below the level it reached a year ago, by 1.1%, or -214,000 jobs. It returns to a level comparable to that at the end of September 2018.

In the so-called "non-agricultural market" field (industry, construction and market services), payroll employment has been measured in quarterly time series since the end of 1970. In the third quarter of 2020, it increased by 1.9% in this field. This is the strongest quarterly increase since the series began, after the successive decreases of the first quarter (-2.8%) and the second quarter (-0.8%), whose accumulation was also unprecedented.

Temporary employment continues to recover strongly in the third quarter of 2020: +23.5% (+135,900 jobs) after +22.9% (+107,800 jobs) in the previous quarter. It fall to an historic low in the first quarter (-40.4%, or -318,100 jobs) and remains below the level it reached a year ago (-9.7%, that is -76,900 jobs) close to its level at the beginning of 2017.

Excluding temporary work, private payroll employment increased by 1.1% (+208,500 jobs).