Mode de gestion des flux de main d'œuvre par les firmes : les différences urbain-rural

The larger the labour market, the more likely firms are to find on this market an individual meeting precisely the requirements of a vacancy and the more likely a job seeker is to find a job offer matching his skills. As a consequence, everything being held equal (in particular, firm size and occupations), firms are expected to experience less difficulties of recruitment and to resort more to external labour markets in big cities than in rural areas. This hypothesis is tested using the results of a survey carried out in the Midi-Pyrénées region by the Regional Chamber of Trade and Industry on a sample of 1500 firms. We show that, when size and sectors are controlled for, rural firms experience stronger difficulties of recruitement than their urban counterparts, and that they recruit less but offer more stable jobs and register less separations. This last result is especially true for small firms. Classification JEL : J41, R23.