Despite a slight decline, the number of vacant jobs is still near peaks in France

After having soared, almost continuously for ten years and particularly after the Covid crisis, their number fell slightly over the first half of 2023. The Ministry of Labor recorded 355,600 vacant jobs at the end of the second quarter, i.e. a drop of around 20,000 compared to the first (-4%). A second decline after the 5% observed during the first three months of the year. In total, the number of vacant jobs is down by almost 40,000 since January. The job vacancy rate fell to 2.2% compared to 2.3% in the previous quarter. A historically high level: it was 0.6% ten years ago.

A vacant job is defined at European level as a position newly created, unoccupied, or still occupied and about to become available for which active steps are taken to find a candidate. According to Dares (Ministry of Labor), the decline affects all major sectors: “-7% in the non-market tertiary sector, -5% in construction, -4% in industry and -3% in the market tertiary sector.»

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The surge in the number of vacant jobs observed in recent years is mainly explained by the fall in the unemployment rate and the increase in job creation recorded in France. The scarcity of available labor translates into hiring difficulties. While this increase is never good news for businesses, it remains natural when a country is at full employment. This is the situation in certain countries in northern Europe such as Germany or the Netherlands. Issue, “France combines high levels of vacant jobs and recruitment difficulties with still high unemployment, which reflects insufficiently efficient functioning of the labor market», underlines Gilbert Cet, professor of economics at Neoma Business School and specialist in the labor market.

Behind this friction, there are actually two quite different cases. The majority of vacant jobs concern low-skilled positions in the commercial tertiary sector, construction or hotels, cafes and restaurants. Deemed not attractive enough, ex-employees turn away to other sectors with better salaries and working conditions. An old problem which has become even stronger after the Covid crisis. “These professions are even less popular than in the past. Finding people who are interested and committed over time wasn’t easy before, now it’s the cross and the banner», Underlines Roland Gomez, president of the Proman interim group. With their backs against the wall, many bosses do not hesitate to make efforts to make positions more attractive. Transition from two to one department, increase in salaries… the gestures are numerous but not for everyone and not always perceived as sufficient.

The training site

For these profiles, business leaders can count on the support of the State which has initiated several reforms to make periods of unemployment shorter and less remunerative. In particular through two reforms in 2021 and 2023 which reduce the duration of compensation when the unemployment rate falls below 9% and review the calculation of the amount of compensation.
At the same time, leading sectors are also faced with the impossibility of recruiting, this time due to a lack of skills in society. Only one solution: training. Here too the project was opened by the government through the development of apprenticeship or the reform of vocational training. but it will take time before all the effects are appreciated. In the immediate future, France must face a series of bad news. After the – slight – increase in the unemployment rate in the second quarter and the drop in activity observed in temporary work, the fall in job vacancies could well reflect a slowdown in the labor market, long announced and until now contradicted by the facts.