Growth continued in the French staffing market in June 2015, building on the year-on-year increase in temporary employment reported in recent months, according to figures from Prism’Emploi, the French Association of Employment Agencies.

Temporary employment increased by 1.6% in June compared with the same month last year. This follows growth of 6% in May and 2.7% in April.

The Construction sector was again the only sector to report a decrease in temporary employment, having reported a decrease every month so far in 2015. However, the decline of 7.5% in June marks an improvement against a decrease of 11.1% in April and a marked improvement against the decline of 18.6% in March.

The strongest increase in temporary employment was reported in the Retail sector, which grew by 13.6% compared with June 2014. This was followed by increases of 4.1% in the Transport sector, 3.7% in the Services sector, and 0.7% in the Industrial sector.

Temporary employment opportunities increased across most employment types. The strongest growth was reported by white-collar workers (8.9%), followed by managers and executives (4.7%), and unskilled blue-collar workers (2.1%).

However, the fragile growth reported in May for skilled blue-collar worker receded: the number of temporary workers in this category fell by -2.5% compared with last year.

Of France’s 21 regions, only one reported a decrease in temporary employment during June 2015 compared with June 2014: Champagne-Ardenne (-4.2%).

The strongest increases were reported in Languedoc-Roussillon (12.3%), and Franche-Comte (7.4%).