Fed Finance, the French recruitment firm specialising in the placement of Finance professionals has published its employment barometer 2013.

Over the year 2013, the Fed Finance barometer indicates a 5 points decrease for permanent hiring (CDI), while temporary assignments increased by 3 points and fixed term contracts (CDD) by 2 points.

As many as 42% of permanent placements were aimed at filling new job openings, while the remaining 58% were aimed at replacing a worker who had left the position. Job creation remained stable during the first three quarters of 2013, and decreased in the last quarter.

In France employers have to indicate whether the use of temporary worker and fixed term contracts are aimed either at replacing an absent worker, or responding to an increase in activity. This provides staffing firms with greater visibility of the nature of demand. Placements into fixed-term contracts (CDD) because of increased activity remained steady throughout the year, representing 38% of all fixed term placements managed by Fed Finance. Temporary assignments because of increased activity grew significantly in the last quarter (coinciding with the end of the audit season) to reach 27% of all placements, and representing 53% of all temporary assignments managed by the company.

In the Ile-de-France region, during the last quarter of 2013 the demand for temporary assignments represented 50% of jobs managed by Fed Finance Île-de-France, compared with 46 % for Fed Finance France. In addition, most of the assignments in the Île-de-France region were motivated by the replacement of an employee (48%), slightly below the national level of 53 %.

In the Rhône-Alpes regions, permanent contracts represented 45% of all placements, followed by temporary assignments (42%) in the last quarter of 2013. The vast majority of assignments were based in the city of Lyon and were aimed at replacing employees (68%), far ahead of the national average (53%). The creation of new job roles was the weakest in the Rhône-Alpes region (11% of job placements) compared to other regions and the national average of 15%.

In the Northern region, during the last quarter of 2013, the demand for permanent placements was strong and represented 60% of all jobs managed by Fed Finance Lille, well above the 40% recorded by Fed Finance France. Fixed-term contracts represented 19% of all placements in the region (compared with 14% across all regions). The vast majority of all placements (71%) were aimed at the replacement of an employee. Again, the North differs from the national average of 53%.

According to Amaury de Vorges, Partner of Fed Finance: “after a fairly quiet first half of 2013, the number of jobs entrusted to Fed Finance increased steadily in the following quarters." He adds: "Companies expressed their needs in terms of permanent hiring throughout the year and we think this will continue in [the] beginning of 2014."

Established in 2001, by Alexandre Tamagnaud and Julien Verspieren, the Fed Group is an independent French group of companies specialising in temporary and permanent recruitment across eight brands: Fed Finance (accounting and corporate finance, accounting and banking, and insurance and finance jobs), Human Fed, Fed Legal, Supply Fed, Fed Africa, Fed Office, Fed Business and Fed Construction. The Fed Group achieved an annual turnover of €40.6 million in 2012. Fed Finance is a recruitment firm dedicated to careers in finance. Fed Finance is organised into three divisions.