Industry: less than 30% of bosses plan to recruit foreigners, according to Bpifrance

Despite recruitment difficulties, only 29% of managers of industrial SMEs and ETIs plan to recruit foreign employees in the next five years, according to a study published Monday by Bpifrance. In these companies that employ 10 to 5,000 employees, more than half (54%) of the 2,454 bosses in the sample do not know if they will hire foreigners in the coming years, 29% say they will and 17% that they will not use labor from third countries. Asked about the advisability of bringing more foreign workers to France, 32% of managers of industrial SMEs and ETIs are in favour, 30% unfavorable and 38% don't know.

From the electronics sector to health via the automobile industry, the industry stands out for its low use of foreign labour. It represents only 6% of the workforce according to Bpifrance, against 13% in construction or 10% in “technical or engineering activities”. A finding at first sight surprising when 62% of respondents say they regularly experience difficulty in recruiting and that nearly 60,000 positions were vacant in the industry at the end of September 2022, according to the Ministry of Labour. “It is difficult to see how we can reindustrialize without recourse to foreign labour”, indicated the general manager of Bpifrance Nicolas Dufourcq on Monday during the presentation of the study.

More than nationality, the bosses seem above all interested in the skills of job applicants. “We are looking for people who want to work, to get involved and to ensure that everyone manages to move forward. Afterwards, if it's a foreigner or if it's a Frenchman, for me, it doesn't matter, ”says a respondent to the survey, boss of a company with 11 employees in the wood industry. Nearly one industrial SME or ETI in two (49%) has also recruited foreign workers over the past five years. The two main reasons that drive managers to hire foreign employees are "having the right candidate available (for 62%) and/or the absence of a native candidate (for 43%)". Only 9% of respondents integrate foreigners into their workforce to “ensure the diversity” of their teams, and 8% to “acquire a skill that is rare on the market”.

In any case, attracting foreign employees “is not the miracle solution” to the recruitment difficulties of the industry, warns Elise Tissier, director of the Lab, the studies department of Bpifrance. Training and improving the image of industrial professions are also decisive, she adds. The study was conducted from September 23 to December 15, 2022, by mail and online with 30,000 managers of industrial SMEs and ETIs, of which 2,454 responded. It was fed by interviews with thirteen business leaders and four industry representatives.