French utility EDF ends hiring freeze

PARIS (Reuters) - French utility EDF is resuming recruitement, it announced on Wednesday after it had hit the brake on new hires earlier this month to define priorities as recent strikes have been weighing on its strained finances.

"Choices" on its hiring plan will be made soon, a group spokesperson told Reuters.

Debt-laden EDF runs Europe's largest nuclear reactor fleet which France is planning to expand further, creating a huge need for skilled workers over the next decades.

"The aim was to obtain feedback from all of the group's divisions and this was accomplished", the spokesperson said.

Last week, sources told Reuters that EDF had warned drawn-out strikes at its nuclear reactors and hydro-electricity plants have cost it 1 billion euros in lost output and that management had asked all divisions to see which hires could be postponed to next year.

An EDF spokesperson at the time declined to comment on the strikes' financial impact on the group, which is in the process of being fully nationalised.

(Reporting by Benjamin Mallet, Writing by Dominique Vidalon, editing by Tassilo Hummel)