Insee Focus · November 2023 · n° 313

In 2021, 2.2 million people worked in a foreign-controlled company

In 2021, 17,500 foreign-controlled enterprises in France employed 2.2 million people. This represented 13% of the workforce in the mainly non-agricultural and non-financial market sectors.

Foreign groups had a strong presence in industry, wholesale and retail trade, and business services. Average wage costs per person were higher than in French multinational companies.

Foreign-controlled enterprises earmarked a less significant part of their added value to tangible investments than enterprises under French control, in part because they operated little in the highest capital‑intensive sectors.