This is in any case the opinion of a digital player in employment, Hellowork, who carried out a study on the performance of the labor markets of medium-sized cities.
Under the effect of the crisis, the distribution of available jobs in the territories vampirized by the large metropolises would have been rebalanced in favor of the middle poles. A windfall effect that would have benefited less sprawling agglomerations such as Angers or Cholet.
Both are also in the top 10 urban spaces listed in this category where the number of jobs created since the start of 2021 would be on a very positive slope (a ranking drawn up by HelloWork., A player in the employment, recruitment and training in France).
The Angers capital is in eighth place, ahead of the Agglo d’Annecy and behind Paris-Saclay. Those of Mauges did even better since it was found on the podium (3rd), between Vannes and Grand Dijon.
According to the deputy director of Hellowork, these good results could reflect the beginnings of a gradual demetropolization of jobs towards less dense urban spaces. A phenomenon still not very sensitive, of which cities like Angers and Cholet, “neither too small nor too big” would be the beneficiaries, if by chance this trend were to be confirmed during the coming months.
Is this the tangible sign of deconcentration of employment? Paris, as we know, has hardly been popular for several years with working people, put off by the prohibitive cost of real estate and the infernal pace of professional life. A feeling of rejection which was amplified during the health crisis, due to the successive confinements at the origin of the generalization of teleworking. However, if demand goes away, part of the supply can only follow.
The observed drop in hiring in metropolitan areas is “not only Parisian since, outside Paris, the share of the nine largest cities in France has also fallen by 2 points” confirms Hellowork.
The top 10 medium-sized cities listed in this ranking would now represent 7% of open-ended and fixed-term contracts (compared to 5% in 2020) and 8% of temporary recruitment opportunities (compared to 7% last year).
In the great west, the Pays de la Loire territory appears to be the third most dynamic region in France on the employment front: 10% of French offers are recorded there. Only Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (17% of offers) and Île de France (16%) do better.
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