Pole Emploi

Site's statement

Jobboard Finder’s opinion

Summary: As the national employment agency, Pole Emploi is a generalist job board in France, which features job offers from partner sites as well as the offers posted directly through the government agency. It is the go-to place for jobseekers, unemployment benefits and different courses to get back in the game. So it’s no surprise that the site is the 27th most visited in the country, with 29.44 million visits a month. Pole Emploi has a number of Twitter pages the main one has 51 600 followers. There are 150 006 followers on LinkedIn, 58 482 on Facebook, 32 876 on YouTube and 4 425 on Instagram.Thanks to an interactive map, you can find your local employment office.

Design: The homepage has a backdrop image of smiling people filling out a form. Over it, you have a search engine (keywords and locations), a box to tick (offers from our partner websites) and six different services to click on (with great UX writing): update, manage my file/publish my CV, register, find my course, employment store, and other services. If you’re a company, you’re options are featured underneath. The rest of the homepage displays the latest news from Pole Emploi. Once in the job listing, you’ll need to select the location or keyword to start browsing. To refine your search, you’ll also have a number of other filters (publication date, type of contract, specific contract, type of hours, experience, qualifications, salary, offers with few candidates – less than 4). As you click on different filters, the page updates. Offers can be sorted by relevance, date or distance. The logo next to the job offers are for the different job boards, not the company logos.

The job board objective: Pole Emploi has strived to improve its UX design in order to make it easier for jobseekers to find work and for recruiters to find candidates. The site has come a long way.

Recruiter observations: Recruiters have a choice between a recruiter, employer or self-employed account. Recruiters need a phone number to create an account. Once you’re signed in, you can browse over 4 million profiles (but you need a keyword). Unfortunately, the service was no working when I tested the site. You need a SIRET number to publish. If you do not have one, you can still publish an add but it needs to go through a local employment office.

Jobseeker observations: Jobseekers need to provide their phone number (in the right format) and address to create an account. Once your account has been set up, you can access the dashboard, where you can speak to the Pole Emploi team and keep track of your applications. You must upload or create a CV before you can apply to offers. For many offers, you are redirected to a different site.

The job offers: There are currently 28 554 job offers online.

Reactivity: --

Special features: the contrasted version; the partner sites; the job fairs; Pole Emploi TV; the courses; the studies/surveys (like the one of manual jobs); the infographics; the employment store (which recommends job boards, apps and other tools); the app; the cute mascot; great UX design; the YouTube videos; the recruiter advice.

Verdict: It can be a bit confusing having many different sites and apps for different purposes. That said, Pole Emploi is an essential part of the job search for any jobseeker. As for (French) recruiters, it’s free and a great way to add to your visibility. Foreign companies might not be able to use Pole Emploi quite as easily.

Written by Ali Neill

As the job board tester and blog editor for the Jobboard Finder, Ali works on job boards from all around the world and keeps a close eye on the recruitment trends thanks to a number of sources, including the website's social media pages.