Temporary work is declining, facing competition from self-employment and permanent contracts designed to enhance employability.

Temporary employment declined by 4,6% last year, after 3,7% in 2023 and 7,3% in 2024. "In three years, nearly 100.000 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs have been eliminated, bringing the total to 687.100 FTEs, an intermediate level between that of 2016 and 2017," details Prism'emploi.

In 2025, the decline in the use of temporary workers is particularly strong in the transport and logistics sector (-11,7%), trade (-7,7%) and services (-7,1%), more moderate in construction (-2,4%) and weak in industry (-0,6%).

The decline is more pronounced among employees (-15,4%) and among managers and intermediate professions (-8,3%) than among unskilled workers (-4,6%) and skilled workers (-1,6%).

"We must also compare the evolution of the number of temporary workers with "the variation of other types of contracts," said Gilles Lafon, president of Prism'emploi, at a press conference.

With equivalent net income, the total hourly cost of a classic temporary worker on a temporary employment contract is indeed 48,8% higher than that of a self-employed worker, and 19,8% higher than that of a permanent temporary worker (CDII), according to the employers' organization.

This latter type of employment contract, which was very popular until 2021, is being challenged by the permanent employment contract (CDIE), whose additional cost compared to self-employed individuals is only 9,3%.

The use of CDII thus continues to decline, to 48.900 positions at the end of 2025 compared to 58.000 four years earlier.

Unlike the CDIE, the use of the CDII is restricted to the replacement of absent employees or to a temporary increase in activity of the user company, which Prism'emploi would like to see changed in the context of the ongoing negotiation on short contracts between unions and employers.

The employers' organization also wants self-employment to be more regulated, because it "covers situations which, according to [it], should fall under salaried employment, since micro-entrepreneurs carry out missions which are in a clear relationship of subordination, while they do not benefit from social coverage equivalent to that of employees," explained the general delegate of Prism'emploi, Isabelle Eynaud-Chevalier.

"Salaried employment is directly affected by the economic situation, but not the number of micro-entrepreneurs," she notes.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.