The French staffing market returned to growth in April 2015, following a slight dip in temporary employment numbers during March, according to figures from Prism’Emploi, the French Association of Employment Agencies.

Temporary employment increased by 2.7% in April compared with the same month last year. This follows a decrease of 0.2% in March 2015; which, so far, in 2015 has proven to be an anomaly after the sector reported growth of 1.2% in January and 3.7% in February.

The Construction sector again weighted on the results, decreasing by 11.1% compared with April 2015. While this marks an improvement again a decline of 18.6% in March, the Construction sector has reported a decrease in temporary employment every month since the start of the year.

The strongest increase was reported in the Retail sector (9.1%); followed by Transportation (6.6%), the Services sector (4.2%), and the Industrial sector (4.0%).

By employment type, skilled blue-collar workers were again the only group to report a decrease in April, with 2.0% fewer compared with a year ago. Skilled blue-collar workers have reported a decrease every month this year, with the latest decrease the weakest this year. In January 2015 skilled blue-collar workers numbers decreased by 13.8%; this was followed by decreases of 13.7% in February, and 5.8% in March when compared with the same months in 2014.

White-collar worker numbers were up by 9.2%, representing the strongest growth by employment type in April 2015, compared with last year. There were 5.1% more managers and executives, with unskilled blue-collar worker numbers up by 4.1% compared with April 2014.

Of France’s 21 regions 17 reported an increase in temporary employment levels during April. The strongest growth was reported in Languedoc-Roussillon (14.1%), followed by Lorraine (11.2%), and Nord-Pas-de-Calais (7.2%). The only four regions to report lower temporary employment levels were Champagne-Ardenne (8.6%), Poitou-Charentes (6.4%), Picardie (2.0%), and Centre (0.9%).