Informations Rapides · 28 May 2025 · n° 135

In Q1 2025, payroll employment was virtually stable (-0.1%) Payroll employment - first quarter 2025

In Q1 2025, payroll employment was virtually stable (-0.1% that is -20,900 net job creations) after a decrease of 0.4% in the previous quarter (that is -98,600 jobs). It was below its level from a year ago by 0.3% (that is -93,800 jobs) but exceeded sharply its pre-sanitary crisis level (end of 2019) by 4.8%, that is 1.2 million additional jobs.

In Q1 2025, private payroll employment decreased slightly (-0.1% that is -28,700 jobs) after a decrease of 0.4% in the previous quarter (that is -81,200 jobs). It was below its Q1 2024 level by 0.6% (that is -123,300 jobs) and exceeded its pre-sanitary crisis level by 5.2% (that is +1.0 million jobs).

Public payroll employment increased slightly in Q1 2025 (+0.1% that is +7,800 jobs) after falling by 0.3% in the previous quarter (that is -17,400 jobs). It topped his previous year level by 0.5% (that is +29,500 jobs) and its Q4 2019 level by 3.3% (that is +0,2 million jobs).

In Q1 2025, temporary employment decreased again, but less sharply than in the previous quarter: -0.5% after -2.3% (that is -3,300 jobs after -16,900 jobs). Temporary employment was below its Q1 2024 level by 5.9% (that is -44,200 jobs) and 8.6% below its pre-sanitary crisis level (that is -67,000 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 (agriculture, industry, construction, market or non market services).

In Q1 2025, payroll employment in agriculture decreased by 1.0% over a quarter (that is -3,300 jobs), and was almost at its level from a year ago (+0,1%, that is +300 jobs).

Industrial payroll employment (excluding temporary work) was virtually stable in Q1 2025 (-0.1% that is -2,300 jobs). It was stable over one year and exceeded its pre-sanitary crisis level by 2.4%.

In construction, payroll employment (excluding temporary work) decreased for the ninth consecutive quarter: -0.7% in Q1 2025 (that is -10,300 jobs) bringing the year-on-year decrease to 2.0%. It still remained well above its pre-sanitary crisis level (+4.2%).

In Q1 2025, payroll employment in market services (excluding temporary work) decreased again: -0.2% after -0.3% in the previous quarter (that is -23,100 jobs after -39,500 jobs). It was below it Q1 2024 level by 0.4%, that is the first fall over the year since Q3 2013 excluding 2020. Payroll employment in market services (excluding temporary work) exceeded still largely its pre-sanitary crisis level by 6.9% (that is +0.8 million jobs). In market services, excluding temporary work, payroll employment decreased in other service activities (that is -14,300 jobs excluding temporary work) and, to a lesser extent, in information and communication (that is -5,500 jobs) and in wholesale and retail trade (that is -4,900 jobs).

In Q1 2025, payroll employment in non-market services bounced back: +0.2% after -0.4% in the previous quarter (that is -21,300 jobs after -34,800 jobs).The increase concerned both its public (+6,800 jobs) and private (-14,600 jobs) components. By sector of activity, it recovered particularly in health and social work activities. Payroll employment in non-market services topped its Q1 2024 level by 0.4% (that is +36,300 jobs) and its pre-sanitary crisis level by 3,9% (that is +0.3 million jobs).

In Q1 2025, private payroll employment was stable for people aged 15-29 years old and declined slightly for their elders (-0.2%). But over a year, private payroll employment for people aged 55 years went up sharply (+2.0%, that is +73,700 jobs) and on the contrary, declined for other age groups (-1.6% for people aged 15-29 years old and -0.9% for people aged 30-54 years old).The respective trends for women and men were very similar over the quarter and over the year.

In the private sector, over the year, work-study contracts increased slightly (+0.7%). Permanent contracts were virtually stable (+0.1%) whereas fixed-term jobs (excluding work-study contracts) decreased by 5.8%, as the same rate as temporary work (-5.9%).

Compared to the flash estimate published on 7 May 2025, the payroll employment in the private sector alone in Q1 2025 has been revised downwards by 38,000 jobs, with its relative evolution revised downwards by 0.2 points. This revision is mainly visible in market service (excluding temporary work) and private individual employers

Compared to the employment detailed estimate published on 28 February 2025, the quarterly change in payroll employment (private and public) in Q4 2024 has been revised downwards by 8,500 jobs and its relative evolution downwards by 0.1 points. These revision is mainly visible in market service (excluding temporary work) (-14,200 jobs) and is mainly due to a revision of estimate of private individual employers.

More generally, as is the case every year at this time of year, the series have been revised slightly more than usual. On the one hand, the series have been fitted to the latest annual estimates for 2023. Thanks to this fitting, the level of payroll employment has been slightly revised (-0.1%). On the other hand, methodological changes have been implemented. Firstly, the data for private individual employers are now counted in terms of the number of employees, to take better account of the development of their multiactivity. In addition, the series for payroll employment in agriculture has been revised since 2018, due to better coverage over the period of seasonal contracts (TESA), The seasonal adjustment models have been revised compared with those used last year.