Rebound in hiring in the first quarter of 2023, driven by the shortest fixed-term contracts

The recruiting race continues to rage. In the first quarter, Urssaf still counted 6.97 million declarations of hiring (excluding temporary workers) in France. A figure up 1% over three months (after -1.2% in autumn, in revised data). But, a sign of more uncertain times, this rebound in employment is solely due to the surge in fixed-term contracts of less than a month (+2.1%), the highest since the start of the health crisis. Contracts of a longer duration, they crumble (-0.4%), when the CDI downright out of steam (-1.2%). This reluctance to hire the longest is felt in all sectors, from industry (-5.2%) to services (-1.2%), via construction (-3.3%). Which returns, for the occasion, below its pre-coronavirus level (-0.8% compared to the end of 2019).