This study aims to shed light on how local employment markets work by analyzing infra-regional disparities in two labour-market indicators: the rate of exit from unemployment to employment, and the unemployment rate. We perform the analysis at the “employment area” (zone d’emploi) level. The map of unemployment-exit rates does not overlap exactly with that of unemployment rates. Our modelling of both rates notably reveals that the intensity of the effect of certain variables differs for the two indicators. Most “employment areas” with high (or, conversely, low) rates of return to employment also display low (or, conversely, high) unemployment rates. But we also find other configurations, whose initially surprising characteristics we seek to explain.