Jobs boom: which sectors are recruiting most in France?

Around one million jobs are expected to have been created in France between 2019 and 2030, a new report has found.

Its authors, government strategy body France Stratégie and labour ministry administration the Direction de l’animation, de la recherche et des statistiques (Dares), waited until after the height of the Covid pandemic to publish the document, so that they could observe its effect on the world of work.

They added that: “Climate pressures are making themselves felt more and more strongly across the world and could significantly accelerate efforts at decarbonisation.”

Taking both the impact of Covid – which includes a movement towards remote working – and the challenges of climate change into account, the two bodies predicted that two thirds of the million jobs created would be in trade services.

After trade, the sectors which should be recruiting most over the next few years include:

• Cleaning (488,000 posts)
• Teaching (329,000 posts)
• Home help (305,000 posts)
• Home delivery drivers (301,000 posts)
• Care (290,000 posts)
• Administration, accountancy and financial services (288,000 posts)
• Commerce and sales (285,000 posts)
• Nursing and midwifery (256,000 posts)
• Transport, handling and distribution (236,000 posts)
• Computer engineering and IT specialisms (190,000 posts)

“To these net job creations are added the [posts opened up by] the retirement of the last of the baby-boomer generation,” the report said.

This means that some 800,000 jobs will become available each year, nearly 90% resulting from the departure of an employee at the end of their career and the rest from newly created posts.

Higher education remains sought after

The report also found that higher education qualifications would continue to be a way for people to protect themselves against unemployment.

“The creation of new jobs continues to favour people with higher education degrees, who will occupy nearly one in two posts by 2030 (47% compared to 43% today),” it said.

The number of “jobs carried out by people who have not gained their baccalauréat will fall by nearly 800,000,” it added, although some 55,000 construction jobs require fewer qualifications.

Graduates will dominate sectors including law, accountancy, management, administration and trade.

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