More than 2 million unemployed on the one hand, 350,000 vacancies on the other. Despite an unemployment rate above the European average of 7.2%, more than half of French companies (52%) reported facing recruitment difficulties in March 2023, according to the Banque’s monthly economic survey from France. A proportion that rises 16 points compared to May 2021.
How can this paradoxical situation be explained? In a bulletin published this Friday, Stéphanie Himpens and Thomas Zuber, members of the Department of Economic Studies and Microeconomic and Structural Analysis of the Banque de France, try to identify the causes of the serious recruitment difficulties that companies have been experiencing since the end of the crisis. sanitary .
A dynamic job market
Let’s put aside the “great resignation” thesis, since both the activity rate and the employment rate reached a record level in France, with 73.6% and 68.3% respectively at the end of 2022. For On the contrary, in the United States, where the phenomenon of “Great resignation” appeared, the post-Covid recovery was accompanied “by a drop in activity”, recall experts from the Banque de France.
On the other hand, they ensure that the dynamism of the labor market in France has contributed to reinforcing the recruitment difficulties. Because while the unemployment rate remains high, it has fallen significantly since 2015, mechanically reducing the available workforce and restricting the pool of candidates that meet the expectations of companies looking to hire.
That is why the economists from the Banque de France recommend the implementation of “structural policies” through a review of the training system “aimed at the most sought-after skills” and the “implementation of aid for job search or hiring “. Ultimately, this would “lower the unemployment rate without increasing the difficulties of hiring.”
Qualification problems, the main cause of recruitment difficulties
The dynamism of the labor market alone cannot explain the increase in recruitment difficulties. Obviously, other factors come into play, to see it more clearly, the Banque de France spoke by phone with 8,000 business leaders concerned or not about these difficulties, each one being free to raise the issues they want.
After analyzing your statements through a list of keywords, it appears that “qualifications” issues stand out as the main cause of recruiting difficulties. This topic was addressed in 8% of reviews from companies struggling to hire, compared to just 2% from other companies. The gap was even greater in the sectors of the pharmaceutical industry (11.1 points), electrical material (11.7 points) and publishing (11.3 points).
Companies exposed to recruitment difficulties are also “more numerous (10%, compared to 5% of other companies, editor’s note) for mentioning one of the keywords linked to ‘wages'” (salary, bonus, remuneration, claim , incentive… ) underlines the Bank of France. With, again, disparities between sectors, while issues related to salaries are mentioned more by companies in service sectors such as publishing, management consulting or information technology (16% of the comments of the companies that are in difficulties, compared to 8.5% of the others).
Although recruitment difficulties have increased in all branches of activity since 2021, some sectors are more affected than others due to various factors related to working conditions, the skills in demand or remuneration. This is the case of transport (62.8%, +17.3 points from the 2nd quarter of 2021), construction (59.8% of companies, +11.6 points) or scientific and technical activities (58, 4%, +12.2 points). On the contrary, the greatest increases were observed in the transport material manufacturing sector (47.1%, +30.9 points), commerce (55.7%, +29.5 points) and accommodation-restaurants (52 .4%, +21.1 points).
Larger, lower-wage companies are hit hardest
The Banque de France, however, states that “it is the differences between companies in the same sector that explain the vast majority of recruitment difficulties.” Thus, “we can expect that within specific sectors and geographic areas, differences in size, working conditions, salary policy, non-monetary benefits or management will play an important role in the ease that some companies have to find and recruit candidates.”
The authors of the study point out, in particular, that in the same sector, companies affected by recruitment difficulties tend to be larger (+20% of employees on average) and offer a lower average salary (-3% on average). . Additionally, 4 in 10 VSEs report encountering recruitment difficulties, compared to 64% among companies with more than 5,000 employees.
Stronger difficulties for large companies that may “be linked to an increase in recruitment costs with the size of the company or simply to a greater need for recruitment due to a high rate of job turnover”, analyzes the Bank of France.
Source: BFM TV
