PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French payroll employment declined to its lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2017 as temporary jobs logged its biggest fall in 20 years amid coronavirus, or Covid-19, pandemic, data from the statistical office Insee showed Thursday.
Payroll employment decreased 2 percent or 502,400 in the first quarter. Payroll employment returned to its lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2017, the Insee said. Employment totaled 25.04 million.
The private sector posted 497,400 net job losses, or 2.5 percent, while the public service recorded a decline of 4,900 or 0.1 percent.
At the end of the first quarter, temporary work collapsed 40.4 percent from the preceding quarter, or 318,100. It went back to its 2009 level. This was the largest quarterly decline since the first quarter of 1990.
On a yearly basis, payroll employment dropped by 304,700, or 1.2 percent in the first quarter.
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