80% of new jobs are temporary
Number of temp workers in France up 25% in a year, but businesses remain reluctant to offer long-term contracts
FRENCH employers are starting to recruit again, but almost all of the contracts available are temporary, new figures reveal.
The number of temp workers has grown by 24.8% in a year to 600,000 according to the Pôle Emploi jobs agency.
Short-term contrats de durée determinée (CDD) now represent 78% of all job offers - meaning permanent jobs in France are becoming increasingly hard to come by.
The temp sector collapsed in 2008 as companies tightened their belts, but it has been growing gradually since the start of the year.
Pôle Emploi says the temp sector is an early indicator of trends in the job market as a whole. The increase applied to every area of French business, including industry.
The biggest growth in temp job offers was in Franche-Comté, where the increase was more than double the national average at 59.7% in a year.
According to the CFDT trade union, about a tenth of the French workforce is on a short-term contract.
CDDs are designed to help businesses cope with a surge in demand or provide temporary cover for another employee.
The union says they are being overused by employers who are reluctant to commit to creating permanent jobs.
News of the growth in temporary work comes a week after Pôle Emploi revealed that the number of people employed in France fell to its lowest level since the Second World War in 2009, down 1.5% to 16.3 million.
A quarter of a million jobs were lost last year, with industry and manufacturing the worst-hit areas. The worst affected regions were Picardie, Haute-Normandie and Lorraine.
