52% is the share of companies that report encountering recruitment difficulties, according to the new monthly economic survey (EMC) of the Banque de France, to be published this Friday, April 14.
A growing number.
Only 36% pointed to the same problem in May 2021. In total, more than 350,000 jobs would remain unfilled in the country in the fourth quarter of 2022. These difficulties "
limit France's production potential and contribute to the lag behind its European neighbors in the field of employment
”, asserts the Bank of Banks.
She recalls in passing that if it is rising sharply, this employment rate is "only" 68.3% in France, against 69.6% on average in the euro zone and even 77.3 % with our neighbors across the Rhine.
Even more embarrassing, these vacancies coexist with more than two million unemployed.
“
A paradox
”, understates the institution which interviewed more than 8,000 business leaders.
At the macroeconomic level, the Banque de France notes first of all that these difficulties are to be found in a rebalancing of the labor market between labor supply and demand.
This phenomenon is not new, underlines the organization: “
Since 2015, in France, the demand for labor from companies is progressing at a faster rate than the labor supply.
This slow but pronounced rise in the labor demand/supply ratio indicates a gradual absorption of the excess supply
”.
In short, the bosses have more difficulty because the unemployed are proportionally less numerous.
This trend, far from fading in the coming years, is on the contrary likely to intensify.
The Banque de France therefore calls for structural reforms so that in the future, otherwise: “
the fall in the unemployment rate risks in the future being accompanied by a symmetrical rise in the rate of vacant jobs
”.
Increasingly mobile employees
The first lever of action according to the authors of the study is training.
The analysis of the comments points to "
qualification problems as one of the main causes of recruitment difficulties
", they write.
Sectors such as the pharmaceutical industry, electrical equipment and publishing are particularly affected, as is temporary work.
Another variable is salary.
A "
theme which seems to have been constantly increasing since May 2021 (date of the first study, editor's note)
", notes the Banque de France.
Highly sought-after professions such as management consulting or IT are the most impacted.
Finally, many business leaders have pointed out the difficulties caused by “
staff turnover
”.
Contrary to what has sometimes been claimed.
France has not experienced a "great resignation", as in the United States, but an acceleration of the movement of employees from one company to another to improve their working conditions.
As a result, the bosses are forced to multiply the hiring process and the efforts to retain their human resources.
See also Seducing candidates, eliminating CVs, favoring interpersonal skills… recruitment in the midst of a revolution
The disappearance of the “
paradox
” that is the coexistence of persistent unemployment and vacant jobs will be the fruit of short-term efforts (response to wage demands), but above all structural (training).
Variables on which public authorities also have a role to play.
The government precisely hopes to be able to look into a major “
full-employment
” law, once the retirement sequence is closed.
