Industrial and blue-collar workers: mostly male jobs

Cooks, stonemasons, boilermakers, truck drivers, forklift truck operators, farm workers, etc.: in 2019, 20% of employed people had an industrial and blue-collar occupation. In almost 40 years, their share in total employment has fallen sharply (– 10 points since 1982). Over the same period, the least skilled industrial jobs have declined in favor of skilled craft-type jobs and drivers.

Eight out of ten industrial and blue-collar workers are men, a proportion that has remained stable since 1982. Industrial and blue-collar workers are less educated than the employed population as a whole. They are more frequently employed with fixed-term contracts, in particular of short duration. They are more exposed to night work and are less likely to work during weekends or at home.