When the population was first confined in spring 2020, the working time of full-time employees fell by an average of 9.9 hours per week compared with previous years. This decline was accompanied by a rise in home working, which more than doubled between 2019 and 2020. Working time almost returned to its pre-crisis level by spring 2021. The return to normalcy has been gradual, as government decisions to ease restrictions related to the health crisis have been taken.

There are significant sectoral disparities. For example, working hours fell by 20.8 hours per week in sectors affected by compulsory closures during the first lockown due to the Covid crisis, while they fell by only 1.8 hours for shops and services classified as essential. In the sectors that initially had difficulties in ensuring the health safety of their employees, 48% of employees were on short-time working during the first lockdown, three times more than in the industrial sectors that increased their production due to their priority nature.

Sectoral mobility increased in sectors that had undergone compulsory closures: 13% of their employees changed sector of activity between the first half of 2020 and 2021, compared to 9% between 2018 and 2019. Sectors that experienced market problems in the first lockdown, where the use of short-time work helped to stabilize the workforce, attracted new employees when their situation improved.