Top 10 Most Recruiting Professions in 2021: Personal Carers Lead the Way!

Published on: 18/02/2021Updated on: 18/02/2021

Following the first lockdown, one-third of French people surveyed considered looking for more meaningful work (Randstad survey, May 2020). The health crisis has rekindled the quest for meaning at work. Thus, the personal care profession should have a bright future ahead. The QAPA barometer places it at the top of occupations that will recruit the most in 2021. Employment needs are significant, but recruitment is challenging. It's all about finding competent professionals capable of providing quality care.

Staff Renewal and Job Creation: A Major Challenge for the Sector

Short-term: Over 50,000 Job Openings to Fill in 2021

In the national employment barometer of temporary work specialist Qapa, published last January, home care and personal care jobs top the list of professions that will recruit the most in 2021, with 50,000 job openings to fill. This is hardly surprising, as employment needs are enormous. The personal carer profession addresses the significant challenges of an aging population. It's already creating jobs and will create even more in the short term.

Retirement: 63% of Personal Carers to Replace by 2030

Home care professionals will retire frequently in the next 10 years. To maintain support for elderly and dependent individual employers (and childcare similar to what it is today), more than 700,000 employees will need to be replaced in the particular employment and domestic work sector[1]. The profession most affected by retirement departures is personal care. Whether they also work as family assistants or not, more than six out of ten will retire by 2030, representing 338,260 employees nationwide.

Aging Population: 65,000 Additional Personal Carers to Recruit by 2040

According to a DREES study published last December, France will have 21 million people aged 60 and over in 2030, 3 million more than in 2019. This aging population will require job creation to meet the increasing needs of very elderly people and those losing autonomy. By 2040, 65,420 additional full-time equivalent (FTE) personal carer positions will be needed to ensure their ability to remain at home.

Connection Profession: Human Contact at the Heart of the Personal Carer's Role

Marie-Monelle, Lurdes, and Karine have something in common: they work as personal carers. Supporting dependent elderly people or individual employees with disabilities in their daily lives. As is often the case in the particular employment and domestic work sector, some learned the basics of the profession over the years in the field. Others underwent training to obtain the "Dependency Personal Carer" qualification as part of a career change.

Because they want to feel helpful, love human contact, and appreciate the diversity of their profession, they have chosen to make it their career. "I fell in love with this profession. Today, I wouldn't change paths for anything in the world," assures Marie-Monelle, a personal carer since 2016. "What I love most? Every morning, seeing how my individual employers spent the night, help with getting up and meals, talk with them, and when that's not possible, communicate through looks and adapt my intervention to the rhythm of their needs. In a word, establishing a relationship and providing long-term support."

Beyond Interpersonal Skills, Real Competencies are Necessary

Studies show it, and everyone agrees: personal carer is a future profession. Lurdes, a personal carer since 1994, is convinced of this, but she wants to remind us that it "requires many skills" and that it is, therefore, "essential to be trained to progress and be properly valued by employers." With the desire to improve, to continuously develop their skills, to evolve, these personal carers have undergone training and participated in carers' centers throughout their professional journey, particularly to:

overcome difficulties encountered in their work
ensure quality care
gain greater recognition

"Training is my commitment to providing my dependent or vulnerable employers the best care. When you start this profession 'on the job' like I did, it's sometimes complicated to find yourself alone facing difficult conditions," explains Karine, who has worked in the sector for 20 years. "I take two training courses per year. It's essential to understand the many situations this profession confronts us properly."

Skills development in service of recognition and quality care has been the focus of action taken by IPERIA, a skills certifier, for more than 25 years. Thus, it regularly supports personal carers in their Recognition of Prior Learning process to obtain the "Dependency Personal Carer" qualification. This was the case for Lurdes in 2013: "Obtaining the qualification through RPL emerged as the natural extension of this professionalization journey, and I updated my skills thanks to the qualification." Today, all these personal carers are proud of their journey. These paths should inspire respect, admiration, and desire. And yet, the sector struggles to recruit.

Recruitment Tensions

The latest DARES study, "Labor Market Tensions in 2019", published in October 2020, lists the 30 professional families most affected by labor market tensions. "Home care workers and household help" rank 9th on this list. Two main obstacles: low gender diversity (88% women) and lack of attractiveness for the profession, particularly among young people. The professionalization of the individual employment and domestic work sector provides an answer to reverse this trend. Training and certifying professionals means valuing and recognizing their skills. It also means securing their professional path and offering them prospects.

If there is an "essential role"—an expression born during the health crisis—that is not controversial, it's caring for the most vulnerable people. As a non-relocatable job that creates meaning and social connections while directly addressing the societal challenge of an aging population, the personal carer profession is anchored in today's and tomorrow's reality. IPERIA will continue to highlight it, showcase the skills of those who practice it, and support future generations who wish to embrace this rewarding profession.

[1] Source: Observatory for Family Employment, FEPEM.

[2] DREES Study - Dec. 2020 « Projections de population âgée en perte d’autonomie selon le modèle Lieux de vie et autonomie (LIVIA) »