French businesses are becoming sceptical about the cost benefits of offshoring, the practice of moving work to cheaper overseas locations. But companies believe investing in overseas markets can save jobs at home, according to a survey published by the consultants KPMG and Medef, the French employers’ group.

The threat of offshoring is being used by Bosch, the German engineering group, to try to compel workers at a French factory to work a 40-hour week, rather than the the statutory 35. Offshoring is also a bogeyman of the French anti-globalisation movement, which was out in force at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong last week.