Informations Rapides · 4 February 2022 · n° 34

In Q4 2021, private payroll employment increased again by 0.5% (flash estimate) Flash estimate of payroll employment - fourth quarter 2021

Between the end of September and the end of December 2021, private payroll employment increased again: +0.5%, or +106,700 net job creations. This is the fourth successive quarterly increase after a clear recovery in the first (+0.8%) and second quarters (+1.5%) and a similar increase in the third quarter of 2021 (+0.5%). In total, at the end of December 2021, private payroll employment exceeds its level of one year earlier by 3.3% (or +648,200 jobs) and its pre-crisis level (of the end of 2019) by 1.5% (that is +297,300 jobs).

In Q4 2021, temporary employment increased sharply: +9.1% (or +71,100 jobs) after much more moderate increases since the beginning of the year (+35,500 jobs in total over the first three quarters). Temporary employment is thus well above its pre-crisis level, which it had almost returned to at the end of September. At the end of 2021, it is 8.2% above its end of 2019 level (+64,500 jobs).

Temporary employment thus accounts for two thirds of the increase in private payroll employment this quarter. Excluding temporary work, private payroll employment increased by 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2021 (+35,600 jobs). As a reminder, in this publication temporary workers are accounted for in the temporary employment sector which pays them (within market services), whichever sector they carry out their assignment (industry, construction, market or non market services).

Industrial employment (excluding temporary work) increased slightly again in the fourth quarter of 2021, in line with the previous quarters: +0.2% after +0.1% in the second and third quarters of 2021 and +0.2% in the first quarter. However, it had fallen by 1.9% over the whole of 2020 (−56,200 jobs). At the end of December 2021, industrial employment thus remains significantly below its pre-crisis level: −1.2% compared to the end of 2019 (that is −38,200 jobs).

In non temporary market services, private payroll employment slowed down again: +0.3% after +0.8% (+30,800 after +88,100 jobs). Employment in this sector has been heavily affected by the health restrictions, with a 2.6% drop over the whole of 2020 (or −298,700 jobs). However, it rebounded strongly in 2021, particularly at the end of the first semester, increasing by a total of 4.0% over the year (+453,100 jobs). At the end of December 2021, employment in this sector exceed by 1.3% its end of 2019 level (+154,300 jobs).

In construction, private payroll employment (excluding temporary work) stabilised in the fourth quarter of 2021 (0.0% after -0.2%). It remains significantly above its pre-crisis level: +4.5% or +65,000 jobs.

In the fourth quarter of 2021, private payroll employment in non market services dropped again slightly: -0.2% after -0.1% (or -5,100 after -3,700 jobs). This slight decline follows four quarters of marked increases: +3.4% year-on-year between mid-2020 and mid-2021, or +87,100 net jobs. In total, private salaried employment in non-market services is 2.0% higher than at the end of 2019 (+49,900).