FX.co ★ France Private Payroll Employment Stable in Q1

In the first quarter of 2025, payroll employment within France's private sector remained stable, recording an increase of 9,400 jobs, reaching a total of 21.05 million. This followed a 0.3% decline in the previous quarter, as per preliminary estimates. Impressively, these figures reveal a substantial 5.5% growth, or an additional 1.1 million jobs, beyond the levels seen prior to the pandemic at the end of the fourth quarter in 2019. Employment in market services held steady, showing no change from a previous 0.3% drop in Q4, while non-market services experienced a rebound with a growth of 0.8%, recovering from a 0.5% decline. Over the course of the year, however, private payroll employment witnessed a slight decrease of 0.3%.