French companies continue to hire, despite the gloomy economic climate

France Travail released its employment figures for the second quarter on Tuesday. According to the latest data released by government agencies, they are rather positive, given the amount of contributions collected.

Hiring continues in France, a phenomenon that may seem paradoxical given the economic context, but has been noted by the services of Urssaf, the organization responsible for collecting and redistributing social security contributions. It is therefore an excellent observatory since the volume of contributions collected from companies and employees is a real thermometer: the more jobs there are, the more contributions are paid; the fewer jobs there are, the less contributions are paid. It's logical.

So what does Urssaf say? The number of declarations of hiring for more than one month (excluding temporary work) increased by nearly 2% in the second quarter (between April and June) compared to the first quarter. Between April and June, this represents a total of 2,350,000 new employees hired by French companies.

Is this a real change if we look at the data over a longer period? It's a recovery trend since the beginning of the year, following several consecutive months of decline since mid-2022. The increase is all the more remarkable as it is driven by the dynamism of declarations of hiring on permanent contracts (CDI): +4% over three months. Conversely, declarations of hiring on fixed-term contracts (CDD) are down by nearly 1%. The share of permanent contracts in recruitments overall stands at 52%, and Urssaf assures that this is a level never reached before.

How can we explain this dynamic in terms of hiring in an economic and political context fraught with uncertainty? A closer look reveals that the largest number of recruitments is taking place in companies with fewer than 20 employees, SMEs. It's much lower in large organizations. We could therefore conclude that, despite the uncertainties surrounding the economic situation, small businesses have orders to fulfill, even if there remain complicated sectors, including construction.

This is a sign that the French economy is proving rather resilient, even in terms of business creations. In the first half of the year, INSEE recorded 575,000 new company registrations, including micro-enterprises, in the trade register. This is a level close to that of last year.