France paid employment: scientific, technical & admin
France paid employment: scientific, technical & admin stood at 4,239 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) | |||||||||||
| Scientific and technical act.; administrative and support service act | 4,239 | 4,266.7 | 4,259 | 4,209.4 | 4,022.8 | 3,798.5 | 3,937.7 | 3,932.8 | 3,817.5 | 3,638.7 | |
| Public administration, education, health and social work | 8,319.2 | 8,312.2 | 8,216.2 | 8,181.2 | 8,161 | 8,049.5 | 8,025 | 8,017.8 | 8,046.4 | 8,022.4 |
Understanding france paid employment: scientific, technical & admin
This headcount measures the number of employees engaged in professional, scientific, technical, administrative, and support service activities. It includes wage earners on payrolls performing legal, accounting, architectural, engineering, consulting, scientific research, office administration, and employment placement tasks. Self-employed workers and freelancers without formal salaried status are excluded from this metric, separating employee headcounts from independent business owners.
Interpreting this annual metric requires accounting for revisions that occur when administrative tax records replace initial survey estimations. Because the data aggregates diverse professional specialisations under broad branch classifications, shifts in corporate outsourcing practices can alter headcount totals without changing total economic output. Long-term comparisons should account for structural reclassifications of business service providers and changes in labor market regulations governing temporary contracts.
Frequently asked questions
- Are independent freelancers and self-employed consultants counted in this employment series?
- No, the measure strictly tracks paid employees on company payrolls and excludes unincorporated sole proprietors.
- How do corporate outsourcing trends affect this employment count?
- When firms contract out administrative or technical tasks to specialized agencies, workers shift into this branch classification even if total labor input remains constant.
- Why do early estimates for scientific and administrative employment frequently undergo revisions?
- Initial figures rely on partial corporate surveys before final tax declarations and comprehensive social security filings are fully processed.