A French government-backed employment agency is betting on an old-school idea to fill hard-to-staff jobs: put recruiters and job seekers in the same room.
In 2025, more than 200 people in the Bouches-du-Rhône department—home to Marseille and part of the Provence region—were supported through a program called “Entreprises éphémères,” or “pop-up companies,” with positive outcomes that included moves into employment. The figure was cited by Didier Krief, a co-founder of the initiative, which is funded locally by France Travail.
Each session brings together roughly 50 participants at a time, mixing one-on-one coaching with direct introductions to employers hiring for specific fields—especially “métiers en tension,” France’s term for occupations facing chronic labor shortages.
Replacing résumé traffic with face-to-face hiring
The model is built around collective problem-solving rather than traditional job applications. Instead of circulating résumés, the pop-up companies are designed to create a human meeting between people who are far from the labor market and local recruiters.
“Our mission is to make sure that, from a very human point of view, recruiters and candidates write a story together and come together to collaborate,” Krief said.
Krief argues the approach targets something many conventional programs overlook: “We have to highlight interpersonal skills.” Behavioral strengths, intergenerational teamwork, and communication sit at the center of the method, he said.
Why the program is targeting France’s hardest-to-fill jobs
The initiative is operating in a tight economic climate. According to Krief, “the economic context is pushing economic actors to extreme caution.” He pointed to international conflicts, limited visibility for business leaders, and delayed hiring decisions as reasons employers have broadly slowed recruitment.
“The only actors who really continue to lack labor are the shortage occupations,” he said.
That aligns with French labor-market data for 2026, which lists industrial maintenance technicians, masons, heavy-truck drivers, and warehouse order pickers among the most sought-after profiles, with thousands of openings unfilled nationwide.
A format designed for people the traditional job market misses
The pop-up companies are aimed at a specific audience: people the conventional job market doesn’t reach—or no longer reaches. Organizers say the group format, peer momentum, and direct contact with real recruiters are meant to bypass common barriers such as low confidence, limited awareness of available careers, or negative perceptions of industrial and skilled-trades work.
France Travail—headquartered in Paris and employing tens of thousands of counselors across the country—is using Provence as a testing ground for approaches that move away from the traditional “counter service” model. The goal is not only to get people back to work, but to place them into roles companies have struggled to fill through standard channels.
With 200 people supported in 2025 in Bouches-du-Rhône alone, the pop-up companies remain a small, human-scale program. Whether it expands to other areas will depend on France Travail’s ability to replicate this in-person matching format in a labor market where, at least for shortage occupations, demand hasn’t let up.
Sources
EMPLOI.LEFIGARO.FR — “Métiers : les besoins des recruteurs en 2026”
