More than 5,000 jobs created in French Tech startups since the beginning of the year
Despite a somewhat sluggish start to the year for the French economy, French Tech startups continue to create jobs. As in February, French startups created some 2,000 net new jobs last month. This represents an increase of +0.6% on the previous month, equivalent to the figure recorded between January and February. This first quarter of 2024 thus marks growth of +1.6%. However, this positive progression remains measured if we compare it with the first quarter of 2023, which was +3.1%.
This stability is also confirmed when we analyze the number of startups creating jobs, those stabilizing and those shedding jobs. Whereas just over 2,800 startups created over 5,700 jobs in February, just under 2,800 created over 5,700 jobs in March. At the same time, 2,200 startups shed almost 3,500 jobs in March. As a reminder, 2,200 startups shed nearly 3,600 jobs the previous month. As in February, 9,200 startups maintained their workforce in March.
This similarity is also reflected in our regional trends. As far as the latter are concerned, it goes back to the very existence of our barometer. Île-de-France and Auvergne Rhône-Alpes have long been the regions driving job creation in startups. For example, Île-de-France accounted for 57% of all jobs created in March, compared with 58% in 2023. The Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region accounted for 12% of the total this month (versus 13% for the whole of 2024). More generally, in January, February and March, all regions of France (except Corsica) generated jobs. As ever, with the exception of the Ile-de-France region, the southern half of France created more jobs than the northern half. As far as the northern half is concerned, it’s clear that the Île-de-France region has the power to attract and concentrate jobs.
With regard to our sectoral analysis, GreenTech remains the “spearhead” of employment-startup activity in France, with almost 500 jobs created in March, representing 24% of the national total. That’s almost one job in four created by a Green Tech startup in March. A similar trend since the beginning of the year (+ 1,250 creations, or 24% of the total in mainland France). The sector’s momentum is even stronger than last year, with one in five jobs in 2023 coming from a Green Tech startup. TransporTech has also confirmed its strong dynamism since the start of the year, with almost 300 new jobs created in March (and nearly 800 jobs created over 2024 as a whole). This month’s news! After having trained its artificial intelligence algorithms, the Motherbase solution now has the capacity to finely analyze the dynamics of a new category: startups serving industry (“Manufacturing” category). This is important new data for our barometer, as this sector is a major source of job creation within French Tech. Indeed, industrial startups have moved straight into second place, with almost 350 net new jobs created in March (17% of the monthly total). Since the start of the year, these startups have created over 1,000 jobs, or more than one in five of the national total. Adding together the jobs created by GreenTech startups and those in Industry since January 1, these two sectors have generated almost 2,350 jobs. That’s almost one in two jobs (44%) created by French startups since 2024.
Employment in French Tech thus confirms the trends seen since the start of the year. But what about April? To find out, visit https://barometrestartups.fr/ at the beginning of May!
