French train operator SNCF is set to recruit 21,000 new staff in 2025, including 15,000 permanent positions, according to a report in L’Usine Nouvelle magazine, which is overall pessimistic about the 2025 job market.
SNCF said that its hiring targets were drivers, maintenance workers and customer relations providers.
While that figure is up an estimated 500 on SNCF’s hires in 2024, it belies a drop in confidence among the leading industrial firms. The forecast 88,000 total recruitment for 2025 is down from the 104,000 expected over the previous 12 months.
In total, some 153,000 posts should be filled in the coming year, the study said, down from 182,500 in 2024.
Meanwhile, Michelin was one of a record high number of industry-leading businesses that declined to take part in the annual survey - probably because job-losses and plant closures France have already provoked industrial action - while those that did take part almost all revised their recruitment targets downwards.
French luxury goods leader LVMH – despite boss Bernard Arnault’s recent dire warnings is planning to recruit 16,000 people, including 8,200 permanent contracts, 800 more than a year ago mostly in sales and hospitality.
The construction, telecoms and media group Bouygues comes third, with 10,000 planned recruitments, mainly for site manager, maintenance technician or sales adviser roles. Then transport operator Transdev (9,000 jobs), energy group Engie (6,300), multinational Veolia (6,000), aeronautics group Safran (6,000), Parisian public transport operator RATP (5,100), La Poste (4,800), and finally water and waste experts Suez (3,800).
Many industrial sectors are still announcing high needs. According to the Direction Générale de l’Armement, the defence industry is struggling to fill about 10,000 open positions.
Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical industry, which created 2,200 jobs in 2024, expects 5,000 jobs to be filled by 2030 for the digitalisation and ecological transition of the sector. Digital vacancies – particularly cybersecurity and data positions – seem particularly difficult to fill in the current climate.
Comments