France payroll employment dropped by 0.2% in Q4 2020

According to the report from Insee, between the end of September and the end of December 2020, private payroll employment dropped by 0.2%, or 39,600 net job destructions. It declined again, as a result of the health crisis and second lockdown after a sharp rebound in the summer (+1.6%, that is +312,400 jobs). Private payroll employment remained below its pre-crisis level: except for the low point in the second quarter of 2020, at the end of 2020, it reached its lowest point since mid-2018. Over the year as a whole in 2020, it declined by 1.8% (that is -360,500 jobs), after five years of successive increases.

Temporary employment continues to recover strongly in the fourth quarter of 2020: +5.3% (+37,700 jobs) after +22.9% and +22.8% (that is +107,900 and +131,600 jobs) in the second and third quarters. These three increasing quarters don’t compensate for the historic drop in the first quarter of 2020 (40.3% that is -317,700 jobs) and at the end of 2020, temporary employment remains below its level at the end of 2019 (-5.1% that is -40,500 jobs) and close to its level mid-2017.

Excluding temporary work, private payroll employment decreased by 0.4% (-77,300 jobs). 

Excluding temporary work, employment declined in industry and market services but increased in non-market services

Industrial employment (excluding temporary workers) fell again: -0.6% (-17,200 jobs), after -0.2% in the previous quarter (-7,500 jobs). Over one year, the decline in industry reached -2.0%, that is -61,700 jobs. This is the largest annual decline since 2010.

In non temporary market services, private payroll employment declined sharply: -0,7% after +1.2% in the previous quarter (that is -83,400 after +139,600 jobs). It remains below its level a year earlier by 2.5% (-289,600 jobs). This is its first annual decline since 2009.