According to the French Association for the Employment of Middle-Managers (APEC or in French, Association Pour l’Emploi des Cadres), hiring prospects for 2012 will mostly benefit managers in IT, sales, and research & development (R&D). 

For their annual survey, APEC asked 11,000 businesses about their hiring expectations in France for this year. Only 9% believed they would hire middle-managers this year, compared with 10% last year; and 5% reported they may reduce staff in 2012. Between 164,000 and 195,000 middle-manager positions are expected to be vacant in 2012, corresponding to a -10% decrease, or a +8% increase (respectively), compared with 2011 actual figures.

According to the survey results, services will be the most promising sector for middle-managers, with around 110,000 to 135,000 expected hires. The service sector alone accounts for as much as two thirds of the total hire expectations across all sectors. In particular, businesses providing services in ITC, engineering and R&D, as well as management consulting performed strongly in the survey results. 

Respondents in the industry expected to hire between 26,800 and 31,200 middle-managers in 2012. These figures compare well with the actual hires for the year 2011 (29,500), indicating that business owners did not over-emphasise the possible impact of the uncertain economic climate.

APEC also identified job roles that would be the most sought-after: sales professionals represent one in five expected hires (between 32,800 and 39,000); followed by IT specialists (26,700 and 35,000 expected hires); and engineers. On the other hand, construction roles may drop as much as -18% in 2012.

The survey results indicate that businesses expecting to hire middle-managers would favour candidates with over five years’ experience, accounting for 50% and 52% of expected hires. Only 19% of roles would be opened to labour market entrants.