France suffers loss of half million jobs in Q1

People take part in a demonstration in Paris, France, on June 6, 2020. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard/Xinhua)

"At the end of the first quarter of 2020, payroll employment dropped by 2.0 percent, that is 502,400 net job losses in one quarter. Payroll employment returned to its lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2017."

PARIS, June 11 (Xinhua) -- France saw half a million net payroll job destruction in Q1 2020, mainly in temporary employment, the national statistics bureau INSEE said Thursday.

"At the end of the first quarter of 2020, payroll employment dropped by 2.0 percent, that is 502,400 net job losses in one quarter. Payroll employment returned to its lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2017, " said INSEE.

The decline affected almost exclusively the private sector with 497,400 net job losses, while the public service lost 4,900 jobs.

Over a year, payroll employment dropped by 304,700. It declined by 317,200 in the private sector but increased by 12,400 in the public service.

A waiter wearing a mask works at Cafe de Flore in Paris, France, June 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

Temporary employment accounted for the largest share of the fall in the first quarter, down by 40.4 percent. That's a loss of 318,100 jobs.

"This is the largest decline in the quarterly series of temporary employment (available since the first quarter of 1990). By comparison, during the economic crisis of 2008-2009, temporary employment fell by 13.9 percent in Q4 2008 and by 13.0 percent in Q1 2009," noted INSEE.

France went into a nearly two-month lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus since mid-March. Bank of France estimated that in the first two weeks of lockdown, France's economic activities registered a 32-percent loss.

A customer is seen at the reopened Printemps department store on the Boulevard Haussman in Paris, France, May 29, 2020.(Xinhua/Gao Jing)■