Things are looking up for the French job market. According to figures published on Monday, January 27, 2020 by the Ministry for Labor, the number of jobseekers without any employment (corresponding to category A) fell by 121,000 throughout France (excluding Mayotte) in 2019, a significant decrease of 3.3% compared with the same period in 2018. This is the largest decrease since the 2008 financial crisis.
This is a downward trend which is also found among all those registered with the French Job Center, Pôle emploi, for at least one year; categories A, B and C, which, after having increased by 5.1% in 2018, fell by 2.6% in one year. These results are a sign of a strong job market where permanent contract hires (CDI) are increasing rapidly once again: according to the Central Agency of Social Security Associations (ACOSS), the number of CDIs increased by 2.2% in 2019.
These figures confirm the latest studies carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) published in mid-December 2019: after having experienced an unemployment rate of 8.6% in the third quarter of 2019 throughout the country (excluding Mayotte), France should see this figure fall to “8.2% by Spring 2020”.