The second edition of the Choosing the Public Service recruitment fair opens this Tuesday. This year, the government wants above all to target young people and students while public employers are struggling to recruit.
A fair to create vocations: more than 70 public employers present their professions this Tuesday at the Cité universitaire de Paris, for the second edition of the recruitment fair Choose public service, which this year is particularly targeting young people.
Less than a year after the first edition, which brought together more than 4,000 visitors to Station F (13th arrondissement), the government is once again busy organizing this second national recruitment fair, at a time when the civil service struggles to attract candidates for many professions.
“Nearly 70,000” positions are to be filled on the main recruitment site for public employers, choseleservicepublic.gouv.fr, assures the Ministry of the Civil Service in a press release.
72 employers present
In May 2023, on the occasion of the first national civil service recruitment fair since 2016, the government announced nearly 58,000 vacant positions in the three branches of the public sector (State, territorial, hospital), which employs a total of 5 .7 million agents. By choosing to settle on Tuesday at the Cité universitaire de Paris, “it is above all to young people and students that the largest public service career fair opens its doors”, says the Ministry of the Civil Service.
The target audience is therefore different from that of 2023, the year when almost half of those registered were job seekers and 40% in professional retraining. While around fifty employers had a stand in 2023, “this year, 72 employers will present (…) their professions, their missions and the professional opportunities available throughout France”, says the ministry.
The Valenciennes hospital center, the Council of State, the Hauts-de-France and Pays-de-la-Loire regions, numerous ministries and the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) will notably be present. Conferences and testimonies from public officials will be offered throughout the day.
For several years, public employers have been facing significant recruitment difficulties. In the state civil service, the number of candidates for external competitions was thus divided by more than two between 2007 and 2021, going from 12 to 5.6 applicants for a position. To try to remedy this crisis of attractiveness, the government must present a reform in the second half of the year which aims in particular to facilitate recruitment and transfers in the civil service.
