France employment: agriculture, forestry & fisheries
France employment: agriculture, forestry & fisheries stood at 690.5 thousand persons in 2025, according to INSEE – Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (BDM). It is one of the indicators in the Annual national accounts table (Value · Annual), with a complete series running from 1949 to 2025. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the Annual national accounts table
| Indicator | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total employment (persons) | |||||||||||
| Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries | 690.5 | 700.2 | 706.2 | 712.7 | 710.8 | 723.7 | 730.3 | 731.1 | 730 | 733.5 | |
| Mining, quarrying and manufacturing | 3,106.7 | 3,104.3 | 3,077.5 | 3,042.6 | 2,997 | 2,979.4 | 2,984.7 | 2,896.6 | 2,893.9 | 2,914.1 |
Understanding france employment: agriculture, forestry & fisheries
Total headcount engagement within primary production encompasses individuals working across crop cultivation, livestock breeding, forestry operations, logging, commercial fishing, and related support activities. This metric counts both salaried employees and self-employed farmers, family workers, and partners actively contributing to agricultural and natural resource extraction. It differs from broader industrial and service employment metrics by capturing land-based and marine biological production cycles rather than factory assembly or office tasks, while omitting seasonal migrant laborers who fall outside official residency definitions or standard establishment registers.
Evaluating this workforce trend requires looking past weather-driven harvest fluctuations and structural consolidation trends that gradually alter farm size and labor intensity over multi-year horizons. Year-on-year comparisons provide a more accurate picture than sequential period evaluations due to the heavily seasonal nature of planting and harvesting cycles. Users must exercise caution when comparing headcount figures with full-time equivalent measures, as the prevalence of part-time, seasonal, and family labor creates a substantial gap between total worker counts and standardized full-time work units.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is included in agricultural and fisheries employment?
- The count includes all salaried staff, independent farmers, and unpaid family members working in crop cultivation, livestock production, forestry, and commercial fishing.
- How does seasonality affect this employment series?
- Planting, harvesting, and fishing seasons create predictable fluctuations, making year-on-year comparisons more reliable than consecutive period assessments.
- Why might headcount differ from full-time equivalent measures in this sector?
- Agriculture relies heavily on part-time, seasonal, and intermittent labor, meaning total worker counts exceed standardized full-time job equivalents.