The organizers of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris are looking for cooks, bus drivers, security and cleaning agents, logisticians… Some 16,000 job offers will be offered during a forum next week at the Cité du cinéma in Saint- Denis in many professions which struggle to find takers. Accor, SNCF, RATP, Sodexo… but also numerous private security companies which have already obtained contracts with the organizing committee of the Olympic Games will set up on September 26 in the location of the future restaurant of the Olympic village in Saint- Denis to recruit, ten months exactly before the event (July 26-August 8, 2024).

This is a “challenge on private security but also on catering”, notes Cécile Martin of the Ministry of Labor, during a press briefing of the organizing committee (Cojo). Because the health crisis, among other things, has indeed undermined employment in these sectors and employers continue to have difficulty recruiting even when they increase wages or adapt hours. It is also difficult to rely on the immigration bill, which provides for a residence permit for professions “in tension”, a text postponed several times, scheduled for November in Parliament, but seeking a majority to be voted on.

So companies will have to convince candidates that the Olympic rings are a plus for the CV and for the future. 4,000 job seekers have already registered for this giant job dating open to all. “It’s a rich experience that will be valued by future recruiters,” promises Cojo boss Tony Estanguet. “It’s a great challenge, like the Games,” he explains to AFP. And “so much the better if the dynamics of the Olympic Games allow sectors in tension to find workers,” he adds.

In catering, the Sodexo group, via its subsidiary Sodexo Live, which obtained the catering market in the Olympic village as well as in 14 competition sites, must recruit 6,000 people (reception, cook, logistics, etc.), with training in the key. “Sectors of the future where there are strong tensions,” recognizes Boris Pincot, HR director of the subsidiary. This is also the case at the RATP, where there is a particular shortage of bus drivers. “70% of the 2023 recruitment plan”, 6,600 recruitments, has been achieved, specifies Marie Cosson, director of skills development at the Régie. For the year 2024, the needs are “in the same trend”, she explains, with a second semester of 2024 devoted to training. Marie Barsacq, heritage director at Cojo, insists on the desire to “open to the public far from employment”.

As for private security, a fragmented sector with high turnover, Pôle emploi has not spared its calls in recent months to fish out job seekers who have already worked in the sector and offer other unemployed people job opportunities. receive the special training created for the occasion. It must be said that Cojo and the public authorities have been warning for almost two years about the shortage in this profession and are racking their brains to try to find between 17,000 and 22,000 agents for the needs of the committee alone. Several thousand more will also be needed to secure fan zones. The race against time continues. According to Pôle emploi Ile-de-France, at the end of July there were “6,200 hires in the sector and 8,000 new entrants into training, including 1,000 students”.

The organizing committee also needs help, from technology at the competition sites, to logistics in the Olympic village, including transport for those accredited. The workforce currently stands at 1,700. They will increase to 2,000 by the end of the year and to more than 4,000 by the time of the Olympics. “When 150 people arrive on a Monday, it’s also a real challenge,” explains Tony Estanguet. Ultimately, how many jobs will actually be created for the Olympics out of the estimated 180,000 who will work for the Olympics? Joker. “We don’t know how to answer, this information will be available at the end of the Games,” replies Christophe Lepetit from the Center for Sports Law and Economics (CDES) who mapped the volume and type of jobs mobilized for the Olympics.

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