French household sole prop. paid employment: persons
French household sole prop. paid employment: persons stood at 279.4 thousand persons in Q2 2026, according to INSEE – Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (BDM). It is one of the indicators in the Household and corporate accounts table (Value · Quarterly), with a complete series running from Q1 1978 to Q2 2026. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the Household and corporate accounts table
| Indicator | Q2-2026 | Q1-2026 | Q4-2025 | Q3-2025 | Q2-2025 | Q1-2025 | Q4-2024 | Q3-2024 | Q2-2024 | Q1-2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Households | |||||||||||
| Paid employment of sole proprietorships (individuals) - Employees in thousands - SA series | 279.4 | 286.7 | 290 | 293.9 | 298.4 | 299.2 | 300.4 | 302 | 305.7 | 312.7 | |
| Paid employment of sole proprietorships (full-time equivalent) - Employees in thousands - SA series | 253.9 | 259.3 | 265 | 269.8 | 273.2 | 275.5 | 277.2 | 280.2 | 284.7 | 290.5 |
Understanding french household sole prop. paid employment: persons
Labour inputs utilized directly by unincorporated sole proprietorships are quantified in headcounts of active staff members. This count isolates personnel engaged by individual entrepreneurs, independent artisans, and freelance operators, distinguishing them from workers attached to corporate entities or large enterprises. Included in the enumeration are all registered individuals receiving a wage or salary from a sole proprietor, regardless of whether their engagement is full-time or part-time. Excluded from this specific tally are the business owners themselves and contributing family members who do not draw a formal, registered salary.
Evaluating this headcount series necessitates looking at seasonally adjusted monthly and quarterly trajectories to bypass temporary hiring fluctuations linked to specific seasons. Initial releases rely on administrative social security registrations and establishment surveys, which face subsequent revisions when exhaustive fiscal records are processed. Analysts find period-on-period changes useful for identifying hiring momentum within the micro-enterprise segment, though headcounts do not capture total hours worked or wage intensity. Comparing this series with broader employment figures helps isolate how self-employed businesses adjust their staffing levels relative to incorporated corporations during changing economic cycles.
Frequently asked questions
- Does this employment count include the individual owners of the sole proprietorships?
- No, the owners and unpaid family workers are excluded, as this series strictly counts hired employees receiving formal remuneration.
- How does this employment measure differ from figures covering larger corporations?
- This series is restricted strictly to staff working within unincorporated micro-enterprises and sole trader operations.
- Are part-time workers converted into full-time equivalents in this headcount?
- The series measures raw employee heads rather than standardized full-time equivalent units.