After a drop due to the health crisis, contractual terminations are on the rise again. According to figures from the Department of Research, Studies and Statistics (Dares) of the Ministry of Labor published on Tuesday, 454,000 individual contractual terminations were approved in the private sector in mainland France in 2021. This corresponds to an increase of 6.1% over the year, after a decline of 3.6% in 2020.
Established by the labor market modernization law of June 25, 2008, conventional termination allows the employer and the employee to agree by mutual agreement on the terms of the termination of the open-ended contract (CDI) that binds them. Their number, which had never stopped increasing before 2020, exceeds its level before the health crisis by 2.3%, testifying to the enthusiasm for this type of amicable breach of contract.
An increase that affects all sectors
However, this “modest increase in ruptures confirms the slowdown observed in the years preceding the pandemic”, underlines the Dares. The increase continued at the start of 2022: according to Dares, the number of approved contractual ruptures increased by 3.3% in the first quarter compared to the last quarter of 2021, reaching 42,300 in March alone. (+4.3% over one month).
In 2021, the increase affected almost all sectors. The number of contract terminations increased markedly in construction (+16%), transport and storage (+13.8%) and real estate activities (13.6%), but fell in information-communication (- 4.5%), financial and insurance activities (-0.4%).
It also increased in all regions of metropolitan France, particularly in Normandy (+12.6%), in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (+10.6%) and in Pays de la Loire (+9 .3%). However, the number remained sometimes lower than its pre-crisis level in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (-4.3% compared to 2019), in Pays de la Loire (-1.7%), in Ile- de-France (-0.7%) and in Normandy (-0.1%).
A slowdown among executives
Contractual terminations are also on the rise again in all age groups in 2021. This increase is clearer among those under 30 (+6.4%), those aged 30-39 (+8.1%) and 40-49 year olds (+5.2%).
Similarly, their number is clearly increasing in most socio-professional categories (+7.7% among employees, +7.6% among manual workers and +5.7% among technicians).
Among executives, whose termination benefits are nevertheless more advantageous, the number of contractual terminations continues to increase but at a slower pace (+1.6% in 2021 after +2.3% in 2020 and +10% in 2019 ).