Insee Première · May 2025 · n° 2052

Civil service employment in 2023 Civil service employment continued to rise

At the end of 2023, 5.8 million employees worked in the civil service, 61,900 more than in the previous year (+1,1%), a higher increase than in 2022 (+0,3%). Employment rose by 1.9% in the hospital civil service, 0.9% in the local civil service and 0.8% in the State civil service.
The number of civil servants, including military personnel, was virtually stable in 2023 (-0.1%), after having fallen by 0.3% between 2021 and 2022: the fall in the number of civil servants in the State and regional civil services was almost offset by the rise in the hospital civil service. In contrast, the number of contract employees rose again in 2023 (+4.9%), even more sharply than in 2022 (+2.6%). The proportion of women in the civil service continued to rise, reaching 63.5%.
Exits in the civil service fell sharply compared with 2022, particularly in the hospital civil service, while the number of entries changed little.