Informations Rapides · 5 February 2021 · n° 035

In Q4 2020, payroll employment dropped by 0.2% (flash estimate) Flash estimate of payroll employment - fourth quarter 2020

Between the end of September and the end of December 2020, private payroll employment dropped by 0.2%, or 39,600 net job destructions. It declined again, as a result of the health crisis and second lockdown after a sharp rebound in the summer (+1.6%, that is +312,400 jobs). Private payroll employment remained below its pre-crisis level: except for the low point in the second quarter of 2020, at the end of 2020, it reached its lowest point since mid-2018. Over the year as a whole in 2020, it declined by 1.8% (that is -360,500 jobs), after five years of successive increases.

In the so-called "non-agricultural market" field (industry, construction and market services), payroll employment has been measured in quarterly time series since the end of 1970. At the end of 2020, private payroll employment dropped by 2.2% year-on-year in this field. This is the strongest year-end annual decline since the series began.

Temporary employment continues to recover strongly in the fourth quarter of 2020: +5.3% (+37,700 jobs) after +22.9% and +22.8% (that is +107,900 and +131,600 jobs) in the second and third quarters. These three increasing quarters don’t compensate for the historic drop in the first quarter of 2020 (40.3% that is -317,700 jobs) and at the end of 2020, temporary employment remains below its level at the end of 2019 (-5.1% that is -40,500 jobs) and close to its level mid-2017.

Excluding temporary work, private payroll employment decreased by 0.4% (-77,300 jobs). As a reminder, in this publication, temporary workers are accounted for in the temporary employment within market services, whichever sector they carry out their assignment (industry, construction, market or non market services).

Industrial employment (excluding temporary workers) fell again: -0.6% (-17,200 jobs), after -0.2% in the previous quarter (-7,500 jobs). Over one year, the decline in industry reached -2.0%, that is -61,700 jobs. This is the largest annual decline since 2010.

In non temporary market services, private payroll employment declined sharply: -0,7% after +1.2% in the previous quarter (that is -83,400 after +139,600 jobs). It remains below its level a year earlier by 2.5% (-289,600 jobs). This is its first annual decline since 2009.

Private payroll employment (excluding temporary workers) in the construction is almost stable in the fourth quarter of 2020 (+0.1%) after +1.3% in the previous quarter (that is +2,000 after +18,800 jobs). It remains upper its pre-crisis level: +1.4% over a year (+20,300 jobs).

In non market services, private payroll employment increased again over the quarter: +0.6% (that is +14,900) after +1.2% in the third quarter (that is +30,600 jobs). It exceeded by 0.6% its level at the end of 2019 (+13,900).