France paid employment: information and communication
France paid employment: information and communication stood at 1,023.9 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paid employment (persons) | |||||||||||
| Information and communication | 1,023.9 | 1,040.9 | 1,039.5 | 1,023.9 | 977.5 | 942.3 | 909.3 | 896.7 | 861.5 | 849.6 | |
| Financial and insurance activities | 790.6 | 786.2 | 778.7 | 767.7 | 761.8 | 750.4 | 746.7 | 742.5 | 740.1 | 743.2 |
Understanding france paid employment: information and communication
Wage-earning headcounts dedicated to publishing, motion pictures, broadcasting, telecommunications, computer programming, consultancy, and information service activities measure formal employment in the digital and media economy. Included are software developers, IT consultants, journalists, and telecommunications technicians holding formal employment contracts, excluding freelance technology contractors. Only salaried staff within information and communication branches are counted.
Reading these statistics requires accounting for rapid technological disruption and corporate restructuring, which can shift labor demand quickly across multi-year horizons. Annual data aggregation provides a stable baseline that filters out short-term project completions in software development. Analysts must avoid conflating this paid information technology metric with broader administrative or professional service branches, as information and communication maintains strict technical boundaries.
Frequently asked questions
- Are software developers and IT consultants included?
- Yes, computer programming, consultancy, and information technology services are core components of this branch.
- Does this series capture freelance IT contractors?
- Independent freelancers are excluded, as this metric tracks paid employees on formal payrolls.
- How do technological shifts impact this employment data?
- Rapid industry evolution can cause structural shifts in labor requirements over multi-year periods.