History tells us the anecdote of how Napoleon chose his collaborators. Generally, the Emperor would ask if the person “was lucky”!
Nowadays, one might ask the same question regarding the new President of the Republic. His predecessor was penalized by voters for failing to “reverse the unemployment trend,” an objective he had set for himself.
The new President, who has just arrived and hasn’t had the time to influence anything, seems to inherit a rising situation from which he can only benefit.
It’s the famous “C” factor that everyone will interpret as they see fit.
And if Napoleon was right?
The statistics institute confirms a new rise in job creation in the first quarter of 2017, notably thanks to the dynamism of the services sector. Over a year, 284,100 jobs were created, an increase of 1.2%.
The French economy experienced a tenth consecutive quarter of net salaried job creation, with 89,700 new jobs. This represents an increase of 0.4% in the first quarter*.
Over a year, employment increased by 284,100 positions (+1.2%), reaching 24.93 million positions. The workforce thus reaches its highest level since 2010, the year when the indicator began to be measured. This trend is partly due to the dynamism of the services sector, according to definitive data published this Tuesday by Insee.
The service industries, the main driver of private employment, have been constantly progressing since mid-2013. As for temporary work, with 687,600 employees, it is now flirting with its record of 691,200 reached in early 2007. Services and temporary work more than compensate for the new job losses in industry (-5,200), where workforce erosion continues. Factories have lost nearly a million jobs since early 2001.
As for construction, which has destroyed nearly 200,000 jobs since the end of 2008 and hadn’t seen a positive quarter since early 2012, it experienced a strong rebound in the first quarter (+9,300, +0.7%).
Agricultural salaried employment increased by 800 people (+0.3%) over the quarter. Trends are similar over the year, with strong growth in private sector employment (+153,700, +1.4%) and public sector employment (+50,500, +0.6%), agriculture (+4,900, +1.6%), construction (+1,700, +0.1%), and temporary work (+93,000, +15.6%), and a decrease in industry (-19,700, -0.2%).
