When faced with a drop in activity, firms do not always decrease their employment: this is known as labour hoarding. The business tendency surveys provide an opportunity to describe this behaviour monthly and at the firm level. Since 2004, regardless of the economic situation, at least one in ten employees of the manufacturing industry has been working in a labour hoarding firm. The share of labour hoarding firms increased during crises. It was very volatile in the transport equipment sector; conversely, it varied little in the food products and beverages. Small firms stood out in two ways: they were more represented among the manufacturing firms that never hoarded labour, as well as among those that hoarded it the most often. Finally, firms’ real employment variations showed that around half of the firms classified as hoarding labour decreased their employment, and slightly more than half of them did so during crises.