As at the end of 2018, 28.1 million people were in employment in France, i.e. 182,000 more jobs than one year previously, after 338,000 net creations in 2017. This slowdown is due to private salaried employment, mainly to temporary employment, which rose sharply between 2015 and 2017 before dropping back in 2018. Public employment also slightly declined, primarily due to the reduction in the number of subsidised contracts. Despite this dip, there was an upward trend in the quality of employment. For example, part-time work dipped slightly (-0.3 percentage points) after growing from 17.1% of people in employment in 2008 to 18.8% in 2017. Under-employment continued to drop slightly, bringing its overall reduction since 2015 to -0.7 percentage points. Furthermore, the share of permanent employment within the workforce stopped falling, after reaching its lowest level since 1982 (85%) in 2017. The activity rate for people aged 15-64 continued to rise, growing by 0.4 percentage points in 2018 to 71.9%, its highest level since 1975. The 2018 increase is actually part of a long-term trend: +2.5 percentage points between 2007 and 2018. In 2018, all age groups were affected: in particular, the activity rate for people aged 15-24 rose for the first time since 2008, while the rate for those aged 55-64 continued to grow as a result of successive pension reforms and early retirement schemes. Since 2007, the activity rate among people aged 65-69 almost tripled, though it still remained low (6.7%).

The unemployment rate came out at 9.1% of the working population on average per year in 2018. It fell for the third consecutive year, resulting in a total decrease of 1.3 percentage points since 2015. Nevertheless, it remained 1.7 percentage points higher than its 2008 level, its last low point. After a sharp rise between 2012 and 2016, the number of people who fall within the unemployment halo remained more or less stable.

The average per capita wage increased at the same rate as in 2017 (+1.7%) in the private sector, but slowed in the public sector after a year boosted by revaluations of the wage index (+1.9% after +2.4%). However, due to the resurgence in inflation, its increase in real terms remained moderate in both the private and public sectors.

In 2018, labour costs increased by 2.7%, after a marginal growth between 2013 and 2017. This return to a more rapid rate was the result of the suspension or modulation of measures that had eased labour costs by a total of 4.3 percentage points over five years.