Good prospects for Market jobs

Rungis Market is a major employment pool in Ile-de-France. With the support of their trade representatives and Semmaris, the market tenants are developing ambitious training and recruitment policies because the fresh produce business will always require skills.

A major employment pool

The Rungis Market groups more tha 1,200 companies employing 12, 000 people. Its 450 wholesalers represent 7,087 jobs, well ahead of the 178 service providers with 1,730 employees, and the 97 transport companies employing 1,493 people, followed by 177 brokers and import-export companies representing 641 jobs.

Wholesalers represent 60% of the jobs generated by Rungis, which is quite logical for a wholesale market. Fruit and vegetables are the Market’s leading sector in terms of labour, with 3,057 employees, ahead of meat products (1,455 jobs), dairy and delicatessen products (1,386 jobs), fish and freshwater products (801 jobs) and horticulture and decoration (388 jobs).

The job centre prepares for tomorrow's Market

The new job centre (Point Emploi) will offer Market operators an additional service to secure and simplify recruitment. 2008 was marked by the decision to create a job centre (Point Emploi) at Rungis Market. The Market effectively faces a specific problem in terms of human resources, which is the very rapid turnover among the employees of Market companies, because of the demanding working conditions in terms of working hours, refrigerated atmosphere work, physically trying tasks or access to the site. Conceived by SEMMARIS and UNIGROS, this initiative brings together all the parties concerned by employment: the sub-Prefecture, the authorities more specifically responsible for employment (DDTEPP, DRTEFP, ANPE, Garp, Assedic, CBE Sud 94, Local Branch), the General Council, the Regional Council and Ador (Association for the economic development of the Orly-Rungis area).

Over 1,000 jobs to fill every day

In July, a steering committee was set up to finalize the creation of this job centre, which will have three permanent staff members when it opens in 2009. Their first task will be to collate all job applications and classify job offers, in order to keep recruitments running smoothly and more permanently, by ensuring a proper match between supply and demand. There are a thousand jobs that need to be filled at the Market every year. The job centre will also serve as an information centre for companies on professional training. In this way, the job centre will help Market operators prepare their future by hiring competent teams, while taking the new developments in their profession into account.

"Rungis Education" to promote careers in fresh produce

For the longer term, Semmaris has developed a programme of actions with schools, in partnership with the French education ministry, which began in September 2006. Entitled "Rungis Education", the programme aims to provide teachers and students in vocational schools with learning tools that convey the Market’s values and explain its strengths. In this way, modules involving visits to Rungis are specially adapted to the future professionals, with 5,000 students attending every year. In addition, various topical files have been prepared on the themes of “Product knowledge, origin and season” and “Supply and inventory management”, with course notes for students, teacher notes and worksheets. Two new themes, written by teachers, will be added every year. These aids can all be downloaded from the website.