While the rise in prices and the uncertain context could undermine business prospects, salaried employment is holding up. This first quarter of 2023, it increased by 1.3% compared to the quarter of the previous year, according to the latest INSEE publication on localized employment and unemployment rates. And some regions are doing better than others.
Among the champions, Île-de-France, Brittany and Reunion recorded an increase of more than 1.8% in salaried employment over one year. Occitanie, the PACA region, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the Pays de la Loire are also attractive with an increase in salaried employment – more measured – of between 1.3 and 1.8% between the end of March 2022 and end of March 2023.
In detail, 83 departments out of 101 saw an increase in salaried employment. The overseas departments, the Atlantic coast, the Mediterranean coast, Savoie, Haute-Savoie and two departments of Île-de-France have the most significant “additional employment” over one year, specifies the national statistics institute. “This development is driven by the market tertiary sector” notes Yves Jauneau, head of the synthesis and labor market conditions division. This sector includes accommodation and catering activities, shops, transport and real estate.
It is the regions and departments where tertiary activity has the most weight that are therefore the most dynamic in terms of salaried employment. On the industry side, however, employment is increasing “more slowly”, and is even declining in the construction sector “for the first time” for several quarters, he adds.
However, these results should be taken with great caution. At the start of the year, “there is always an increase in salaried employment in all regions, because companies are recruiting”, tempers Yves Jauneau. What’s more, the expert notes a strong mobility of employees who change company, which leads to job creation. This phenomenon of mobility has increased since the health crisis and concerns all sectors and all regions, according to a publication by Dares for INSEE.
In 2022, the activity rate has never been so high since 1975, with 73.6% of assets, according to INSEE figures. However, the institute is still counting on a “slowdown in employment in the coming quarters”, specifies Yves Jauneau. In question, a weaker increase in economic activity, a slowdown in the creation of work-study positions, and a drop in employment activity in construction.
Each quarter, the national unemployment rate is measured by INSEE. But it is difficult to go into detail at the regional or departmental level. As a result, the national institute has established a special indicator: the “localized unemployment rate”.
The unemployment rate at the national level stands at 7.1% in the first quarter, with a decrease of 0.3 points less than in the first quarter of 2022. At the regional level, it remains “almost unchanged in six regions”, notes the INSEE note. It increases only in Reunion. Unemployment remains “well below its level before the health crisis”, specifies Yves Jauneau. It is in Île-de-France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Guyana and the Pays de la Loire that unemployment has fallen the most.
Disparities, which date from before the crisis, still persist between the regions. Hauts-de-France and Occitanie are the two regions with the highest unemployment rate in mainland France, between 8.1 and 9.1%. Several reasons explain this situation. Occitania is experiencing “strong demand for employment” in a region with significant demographic dynamics, explains the expert. The Hauts-de-France are, for their part, a predominantly industrial region. Overseas territories are particularly affected with a rate exceeding 9.1%. These territories are also subject to more or less significant changes, because these territories are “smaller with fewer jobs”, specifies Yves Jauneau.
