“Great resignation”: Is France experiencing the same scenario as the United States? – 20 minutes

As after the 2008 financial crisis, resignations increased in France after the Covid-19 pandemic. In each quarter, between the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, France recorded nearly 520,000 resignations, including 470,000 on permanent contracts, according to a study by the Direction de l’Animation de la recherche, des Etudes et des Statistiques (Dares) published on Thursday August 18. “The previous record dated from the 1st quarter of 2008, with 510,000 resignations, including 400,000 for permanent contracts alone,” the study states. In companies with 50 or more employees, the resignation rate in relation to the number of employees is currently among the highest since 1993. It nevertheless remains lower than that observed in the early 2000s. A phenomenon that recalls what is happening in the USA. North America is experiencing a wave of mass resignations with, in November 2021 alone, more than 4.5 million Americans leaving their jobs to navigate to other professional lands. Can we therefore speak of a “great resignation” in France, similar to what is happening among our American neighbors? No, according to Eric Heyer, director of the analysis and forecasting department at the OFCE (French Observatory of Economic Conditions). “It’s not at all the same thing as in the United States where we talk more about employees who did not return to work after the Covid-19 crisis”, he explains to 20 Minutes. A rate very high employment What must be taken into account is that currently in France, the employment rate of young people, but also of less young people, is particularly high. The employment rate of the population (15 to 64 years old) stabilized at 68% (+1 point compared to the 2nd quarter of 2021), unheard of since 1975 and the first measurements carried out by INSEE. It even reached its highest historical level among 50-64 year olds (66%, +0.5 points over one year). And so this large number of departures “may mean that the job market, on the contrary, is running at full speed, underlines the specialist. These are resignations that lead to a new recruitment, and not to stop working”. The Dares study indeed specifies that “returns to employment of resigning workers seem rapid despite the high level of resignations”, approximately six month later. But “in the case of the United States and the United Kingdom, the large number of resignations” would reflect “behaviors of “poaching” of the workforce between companies, in a context of strong demand for work and limited offer. Marie-Rachel Jacob, professor of strategic management of human resources at emlyon business school, adds that “the job market” across the Atlantic “is very different from that of France, with much greater fluidity and much less of stability”. She adds that in the United States, we are witnessing more of an exit from the job market, with young graduates who “drop out”. Difficulties in recruiting Companies may thus be confronted with difficulties in recruiting. With trades more affected than others, such as sales engineers, trades related to health… The case of catering is particular because “the conditions of employment and work are very harsh”, notes Marie-Rachel Jacob . Several reasons can explain the Dares figures, starting with the epidemic, which, if it now seems behind us, is not over. There is therefore a rate of absence linked to work stoppages which is still quite high and therefore companies need more jobs to produce the same thing. In addition, companies were pushed during the health crisis to declare their employees more in order to receive state aid, thus “there is less hidden work than before”, explains Eric Heyer. He adds that he there are fewer posted workers on the labor market, again due to the Covid-19 crisis. The French are then recruited instead of foreigners. Supply-related problems are also filling the order books of companies, which want to maintain a high enough number of employees knowing that they will have difficulty hiring later. Finally, many so-called “zombie” companies should have gone bankrupt but were maintained thanks to the “whatever the cost” of the government, and their employees too. A balance of power that is reversed This “great resignation” in the French style can then be interpreted as good news, at least for the employees. And the balance of power is being reversed. “It is more in favor of the employee than of the company than before and the employee, with the unemployment rate falling and the employment rate rising, is becoming a rarer commodity”, analyzes Eric Heyer. Companies then see themselves in competition with each other, and will have to attract employees, whether through remuneration or working conditions. A reversal of the table which applies, however, above all to highly qualified people. “Young people coming out of top schools want to choose their working conditions, whether in terms of salary, geographical distance, corporate social responsibilities”. A freedom which concerns less the rest of the young generation, in particular the least qualified, nuance Marie-Rachel Jacob. The other good news which emerges from this situation, it is the decline in CDD practices of less than a month. “Some companies will abandon these practices of offering the legal minimum to employees and offer more permanent contracts in order to guarantee a minimum of manpower, advances the professor. We can hope for better application of labor law and for the CDI to become the default contract”.