This paper investigates how variety affects regional employment growth in France over the period 2004-2015. Starting from the seminal contribution of Frenken et al. (2007), we argue that intra-industry externalities foster employment growth. However, we don’t distinguish yet between the own effect of related variety of the region and that of its neighbourhood. Hence, we suggest that conceptual progress can be made when analysis considers the direct and indirect (neighbourhood) dimension of variety. Our empirical investigations confirm that related variety has a positive effect on employment growth. Moreover, this impact seems to be driven by the endogenous dimension of related variety in growth phase and by exogenous dimension in crisis period. We also find that the negative relationship between unrelated variety and employment growth goes only through the endogenous canal.