Labour market polarisation in France: What happens during crises?

We examine the structure of employment in France, separating it into four groups: “High-end” employment: new technologies, financial and real estate services, information and communication technologies, specialised scientific and technical activities; “Intermediate” employment: manufacturing industry; General government employment ; Employment in “domestic activities”: personal services, transport, administrative and support services, retail, hotels and restaurants, construction. We examine the polarisation of the labour market, i.e. the trend for jobs to concentrate at either end of the spectrum (skilled jobs in high-end activities and low-skilled jobs in domestic activities), and we seek to determine whether crises accelerate this polarisation. We find that labour market polarisation has been strong and continuous in France, in particular after the 2000-2001 crisis, although not after the 2008-2009 crisis. The coronavirus crisis will not necessarily increase polarisation if manufacturing jobs are reshored.