The resumption of economic activity is timid but it is there, this is what the departmental director of the Banque de France, Aurore Markiewicz, announces: “After a landing phase in 2023, slight growth – + 0, 9% – is expected in 2024 in France”, favored in particular by the gradual drop in interest rates expected from June.
This improvement in the economic situation will also benefit the Pyrénées-Orientales which remains the department with the highest unemployment rate: 12.2% in the last quarter of 2023, when the Occitanie region is at 8.8% and France at 7.2%. .
According to the survey conducted by the CCI of Pyrénées-Orientales among 300 companies in the main sectors of activity, the industry, after a rather low volume of activity in the fourth quarter of 2023, is showing optimism for 2024: 16% companies plan to hire.
Good results for cafes-hotels-restaurants
Closely monitored in a department strongly marked by its seasonal activities, the sector of cafés-hotels-restaurants and campsites also ends the year 2023 “on a rather good trend”, according to the CCI, with an increasing turnover for a quarter of the companies surveyed and this, despite margins which are decreasing “due to a drop in purchasing power and increased costs for professionals”.
As for the Banque de France, companies in the sector questioned as part of its economic survey forecast growth in their turnover of 7.2% in 2024, “which perhaps bodes very well for season for 2024,” adds Aurore Markiewicz.
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“The strong seasonality of activity in the Pyrénées-Orientales is an opportunity but also our big difficulty”, procrastinates Catherine Salies, director of France Travail, who recalls that “one job in two is linked to the season and that everything the challenge is to secure jobs.”
The level of activity in the construction sector, on the other hand, is expected to remain low in 2024 with no hiring prospects.
Commerce is, for its part, the sector most impacted by the unfavorable economic situation of 2023: 55% of the companies surveyed ended the year with a falling turnover.
A gloom which is still present at the start of the year since 44% of companies expect a continued decline in their turnover for the first quarter of 2024.