Based on semi-structured interviews in Greater Paris, this article explores the recruitment methods used to fill elementary positions in retail in a buoyant labour market. It is argued that employers are involved in constructing individual employability. In Greater Paris, the obstacles...

Current `back-to-work' programmes, particularly in France, tend to be built on a concept of personal responsibility for (long-term) unemployment and follow an `adaptive' approach: improving the `employability' of the unemployed, which is seen as an individual capacity, independent of the work...

To address the labour market which is a priori indefinite, firms, workers and intermediaries need ?investment in forms?. Drawing on such a conventionalist approach, the article analyses the hiring channels used by firms in service-oriented sectors. Two questions are relevant: 1) Do channels...